The best account of the history of this song in Roy Palmer's The rambling soldier : life in the lower ranks, 1750-1900, through soldiers' songs and writings / edited by Roy Palmer. Harmondsworth, Middlesex : Peacock Books, 1977. pp. 119-126.

Palmer spells the name M'Caffrey but says that "the name appears, not only in the ballads, but also in the contemporary press, in a variety of spellings".

The Regiment was the 32nd, the Cornwall Light Infantry, based at Fulwood Barracks, Preston. The 42nd, the Black Watch, was a lot better known which presumably accounts for their being confounded in many versions of the ballad.