There are a couple of political songs ("Battle of the Kegs" in the Revolutionary war, that I know of) to this tune/format.

The refrain has been distorted in the version you heard. The folk process at work! Originally it was "For Bowls," or "For Bowls, Says I" and it refers to a drinking bowl, as in "landlord fill the flowing bowl until it doth run over." Last line usually is just "Johnny fill up the bowl."

Another format for the verses is this:

In eighteen hundred and sixty-one
For bowls, for bowls;
In eighteen hundred and sixty-one
For bowls, says I;
In eighteen hundred and sixty-one,
That's the year the war begun
We'll all drink stone blind,
Johnny, fill up the bowl.

The tune I know is the tune to "When Johnny comes Marching Home."

I've been convinced for a long time that the ORIGINAl song, pre revolutionary war, was a tavern drinking song that is lost now. Dick? Anyone? Do you know what the earliest version might be? I've been curious about this for a while....

Rita Ferrara