I'm very grateful to cnd and Rex for these cavalry-related references. They provoke some interesting (but also frustrating!) thoughts.

I'm unable to access the Chicago Tribune (1915) article without a subscription. Does anyone have a work-around or some way I could examine the piece directly?

Spalding's verses are quite similar to those in the Chicago Tribune. I wouldn't be surprised if the Cavalry had a fairly standardized "version"—in contrast to chanties, which tended to be more individualized.

However, the "Tommy Tompkins" line is suspicious to me. I'm having trouble imagining that as a part of a standardized version. In other words, do we imagine that every time the 7th Cavalry sang "Wild Missouri," as for example at the Fort Riley retirement event mentioned above, they would conclude with this "Tommy Tompkins" thing? Maybe.

Still, my skepticism compels me to wonder if Spalding had not somehow access this or a similar printed text. It's a long shot; I guess it would be simpler just to accept that Spalding gave it as he knew it and Lomax took it as-is—though when did the Lomaxes ever publish songs as-is?

And when did Lomax, probably John (?), get this from Spalding? Their friendship appears to have been on-going. Did John Lomax first connect with Spalding when, circa 1910, he started asking for military song examples?

The part that bugs me is that the Lomax book has a version of the melody that is nowhere in known evidence before 1920. That version of melody, very probably mostly due to RR Terry's 1920-21 publications and then concert performer/recording artists' performances of Terry's score, totally saturated the public ear starting in the 1920s. Really, the force of all evidence before 1920 is against this melody having existed in any widespread form before then.

In that case, if the Lomaxes faithly noted the tune as-is from Spalding, then Spalding's version, supposed to be of 1910s or earlier vintage, would be the one piece of indirect evidence supporting this melody existing widely before Terry popularized it. Or else, the Lomaxes were under the sway of the newly popularized version and somehow messed with Spalding's tune.

I know it sounds far-fetched to jump to the suspicion that Lomax messed with Spalding's tune BUT all the other evidence is telling me that is more likely than that melody having been out there but never appears in the pre-1920 documents (or many post-1920 expert sources thereafter).