The Nestor version doesn't really use chords, though there is the hint of a G to D to G again in the "Sick and I can't go, my love, sick and I can't go" part of the verse. A banjo player can simulate all of that with some slides and pull-offs on the middle string but without playing an actual chord. If your guitar is tuned DGDGBD you can do the same thing there, with the same fingering, but in EADGBE you can still play the song similarly out of a 3-X-X-4-3-3 position. The song wants you to frail, rather than pick, it on the guitar, or so it seems to me.

Lately I've heard a "new" to me version, somewhat more conventionally melodic, played by Sutphin, Hooven, et al during the intro to the Mike Seeger "Old Time Banjo Styles" DVD. It sounds like the Nestor tune squared away to accomodate a guitar accompaniment, and I don't like it at all. Even with that one, though, the only chords you would use are G and D, or the I/V equivalents in your key of choice.