Introduction and Referenced Works

This is my research into a Civil War song of fairly obscure origins that variously goes by the name "I Can Whip the Scoundrel," "(Old) Abner's Shoes," "Lay Ten Dollars Down," or "General Patterson." Because of this, going into the song's full history will take a bit of time to go over fully. Since this is so long, if you don't want to read the full thing as I've written it, I'll be making a separate post which summarizes everything with the title "Summary"; you can skip down to that if you'd like.

First, I'll include texts of songs I've found. There are plenty of physical, non-digitized Civil War period newspapers and magazines of which I'm sure more lines to the song could be found (for example, The Southern Illustrated Iews, or many of the scores of other obscure titles available in the Alexander Street Press Illustrated Civil War Newspapers and Magazines collection, which I do not have access to), but, despite that, I've managed to assemble a fairly diverse body of lyrics.

Song Texts:
- The (London) Index, Vol. III, No. 56 (May 21st, 1863) - The War Songs of the South, pp. 60-61
- The Maritime Monthly, Vol. III, No. 5 (May 1874) - Travels and Adventures In the South by J. Newton Wilson, p. 437
- Southern Bivouac, Vol. I, No. 2 (July 1885) - Salmagundi, pp. 126-127
- Buffalo Sunday Morning New, Vol. XIX, No. 38 (April 17th, 1892) - Old War Songs by Wesley T. Wilson, p. 4
- The Daily Picayune, Vol. LXII, No. 97 (May 1st, 1898) - Confederates Under Old Glory's Folds, p. 6
- Ottowa (KS) Daily Republic, Vol. XXV, No. 103 (May 1st, 1905) - Col. Mason's Reminisces by C. B. Mason, p. 3
- Winston-Salem Journal, Vol. X, No. 224 (August 23rd, 1908) - Reminisces of Patrician, p. 4
- The (Baltimore) Sun, Vol. CXLV, No. 99 (August 23rd, 1909) - Answers to Questions, p. 5
- The (Newberry, SC) Herald and News, Vol. XLVI, No. 68 (August 27th, 1909) - Romance of Rocketts by Col. D. A. Dickert, p. 1
- Reminisces of General Basil W. Duke (1911) by Basil W. Duke - Chapter XIV (Untitled), pp. 294-296
- The Dayton Herald (October 25th, 1911) - "Who Struck Billy Patterson", p. 4
- Nashville Banner, Vol. XXXVI, No. 262, Part 3/3 (February 10th, 1912) - Some Good War Time Stories by Will T. Hale, p. 8
- Nashville Banner, Vol. XXXVII, No. 250, Part 2/2 (January 25th, 1913) - Village Life During the Great War by Will T. Hale, p. 7
- The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore (pub. 1952, collected May 7th, 1913) - As I Went Down To Newbern by E. B. Miller, p. 658
- Nashville Banner, Vol. XXXVIII, No. 295, Part 2/3 (March 21st, 1914) - Humor Endurin' the Army by Will T. Hale, p. 10
- History of De Kalb County, Tennessee (1915) by Will T. Hale - Chapter XIX: Personal Experience, p. 225
- Nashville Banner, Vol. XLIV, No. 116, Part 1/4 (August 3rd, 1919) - Tennesseean's Recollections of Half A Century by Will T. Hale, p. 12
- The (Nashville) Christian Advocate, Vol. 80, No. 46 [Whole No. 4119] (November 14th, 1919) - Switching to This and That, p. 11 (1451)
- The Natchez Democrat, Vol. LVI, No. 96 (January 24, 1922) - The People's Forum (under "MY DEAR MR. LAMBERT:"), p. 4
- A Knot of Blue and Gray (1923) - Who Struck Billy Patterson by Capt. Robert Wright, p. 26
- The (Pomona, CA) Bulletin, Vol. IX, No. 237, Section 3 (October 28th, 1923) - 16 Months In Dixie by P. D. Swick, p. 5
- The Burlington (VT) Free-Press, Vol. 92, No. 263 (November 3rd, 1925) - Music A Medium Of Civil-Religious Exaltation by John L. Southwick, p. 4
- Confederate Veteran, Vol. XXXVII, No. 8 (August 1930) - Fighting In Missouri by James A. Payne, p. 308
- Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States (pub. 1941, collected May 8th, 1937) - Bryant Huff: Old Slave Story by Bryant Huff, p. 241
- Pamletto Country (1942) by Stetson Kennedy - I Can Whip the Scoundrel, p. 86
- Folksongs of Florida (1950) by Alton C. Morris - General Patterson, p. 24
- Folksongs of Florida (1950) by Alton C. Morris - I Can Whip the Scoundrel, p. 28
- The Master Book of American Folk Song (pub. 1983, no date given for text) - Lay Your Money Down or Lay Ten Dollars Down by Dickson Hall (Riley Shepard)

Secondly, I'll list known recordings of the song. Unfortunately, almost all of them are more or less modern recordings, with all but one version appearing to rely on a common source. None of them mention being orally transmitted. It seems a shame to me that, as best as I can find, no field recordings of the song exist, and that the known recordings of the song are based off of known texts

Recordings:
- Hermes Nye, Ballads of the Civil War (Folkways Records FP 5004, 1954) - General Patterson
- The Cumberland Three, Civil War Almanac Vol. 2: "Rebels" (Roulette Records R 25133, 1960) - Lay Ten Dollars Down
- Tennessee Ernie Ford, Tennessee Ernie Ford Sings Civil War Songs Of The South (Capitol Records T-1540, 1961) - I Can Whip the Scoundrel
- Tom Glazer, The Musical Heritage Of America Vol. II - The Civil War (CMS Records CMS 660/4L, 1973) - General Patterson
- Bobby Horton, Homespun Songs of the C.S.A., Volume 3 (No Label - HMCDC3, 1987) - Old Abner's Shoes
- Wayne Erbson, Ballads & Songs Of The Civil War (Native Ground Music ?NG004, 1994) - I Can Whip the Scoundrel
- Piney Creak Weasels, Squirrel Heads & Gravy! (Hay Holler Records HH-1101, 1996) - Abner's Shoes
- Nunez and Nelson, The Long Road: Music Of the Civil War (2017) - I Can Whip the Scoundrel

From this list, you can make a few observations: though the song was initially very popular (especially among Southern soldiers) and spawned a nearly-endless number of verses by lyrically-minded soldiers, the song quickly faded to obscurity not terribly long after the Civil War. The question as to why that may have happened is hard to answer. Perhaps the song lent itself well to creative adaptation, but the sheer number of verses associated with the song made learning it too difficult. Perhaps, despite its apparent celebrity status at the time, it was not enjoyed much in retrospect as modern standards, such as "Dixie," "Aura Lee," "Lorena," or other such songs. I posit, however, that its popularity (and subsequent decline) had to do with the song's largely topical nature; recounting in (sometimes-excruciating) detail the history of a regiment or unit of soldiers as they traveled from campaign to campaign and battle to battle is not particularly enjoyable, especially for people who were not a part of the fighting and would have had an even harder time learning it. Additionally, the enumerative nature of the song and the popularity among the losing Confederates make the song more bitter to sing after their defeat.