The main source of "Dunbarton's Drums" for many on the American folk scene was the family singing of Bob and Evelyn Beers and Bill and Janet Boyer. (Bob Beers in New York and Janet Boyer in St. Louis were brother and sister.) I believe their source for the song was their grandfather, GEORGE SULLIVAN, of North Freedom, Wisconbsin. That would/might indicate that the song was Irish in origin even though it was about Scottish doings.

"Springfield Mountain", I've always thought, was from Springfield Mountainin Massachusetts where a lad named Timothy Myrick (or something similar) was bitten by a snake. This was in the very early American colonies. The song was later used on the vaudeville stage where it was given a risque moral tacked onto the end.

A warning take each lad and lass,
Don't you get in trouble in the long tall grass !

Art Thieme