Hartford [Conn.] Daily Courant (June 1, 1864), p.2:

"A Connecticut officer sends us some poetry, which was found in a rebel camp at Resaca, Ga., and is entitled 'The Rebel Soldier.' There are six verses, and we give the last as a sample:

"I will eat when I get hungrey I will drink when I get dry
If the Yankis dont cil me I will live till I di
If Mollie forsakes me it will caus me to moarn
I am a rebel soldier a long wayes from home."


Metropolitan Record and New York Vindicator (N.Y.C.) (Feb. 23, 1867):

"There were some [Confederate] soldiers who repined very much at the discomforts of camp. There were particularly fond of a song called 'The Rebel Soldier.' It is astonishing how much repetition there is in these lays, due, no doubt, to the drawling refrain, the circuit riders always tacked to the end of their favorite hymns. I suppose this was considered necessary for emphasis. 'The Rebel Soldier' commenced thusly:

One morning, one morning, one morning in May,
I heared a poor soldier lamenting and say,
I heared a poor soldier lamenting and mourn
'I am a Rebel soldier, and fair (far) from my home.'

"The 'am' in the last line was given forth with great power. 'Far' was universally pronounced as if spelled 'fare' [sic]. The song continued in as doleful a straun as it is possible to imagine, until it reached the verse where the 'poor soldier' remarks:

I'll eat when I'm hungry, I'll drink when I'm dry,
If the Federals don't kill me, I'll live till I die.

...

"'The Rebel Soldier' was a song which could call into requisition the combined voices of a dozen or more.