I found a 1968 Folkways recording of "The Warfare Is A-Raging" by Aunt Polly Joines:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zvGAc_KcaE

Here are the lyrics from the album notes:


Band 10. 'The Warfare Is A-Raging" : sung by
Aunt Polly Joines

THE WARFARE IS A-RAGING

The war is a-raging and Johnny you must fight
I long to be with you from morning till night.
I'll cut off my hair, and men's clothing I'll put on
I'll go marching by your side, as you go marching on
As you go marching on, that 's what grieves my heart so
Oh may I go with you, No my love no.

Your waist it's too slender, your fingers they 're too small
Your cheeks too red and rosy to face the cannonball.

I know my waist is slender, my fingers they're too small
But it never makes me tremble to see ten thousand fall
To see ten thousand fall, that's what grieves my heart so
Oh may I go with you, No my love no.

NOTES: Sharp 11 113. While this song is based on the same theme as the ballad "Ho Lilly Ho", all of the versions collected lack narrative content. Instead they are all emotive elaborations on the problem set forth in the ballads of this theme family

The scale is pentatonic (f#); range: plagal; structure: ab(ab) the 2nd (ab) present only with the 2nd and 4th verses; meter: 2/ 2. Detailed technical analysis cannot begin to describe the remarkable musical sensitivity that is still conveyed by this 85-year-old woman.