Re the original post and a civil war setting, the usual song of this type seems to be related to Mosby's Rangers as:

When I can shoot my rifle clear
At Yankees on the roads,
I'll bid farewell to rags and tags
And live on sutler's loads

He who has good buttermilk aplenty
And gives the soldiers none,
He shan't have any of our buttermilk
When his buttermilk is gone.


The first verse is given in several books you can see at Google books: The Edge of Mosby's Sword: the life of Confederate Colonel William Henry Chapman by Gordon B Bonan, Gray Ghost: The Life of Col. John Singleton Mosby by James Ramage, Mosby's Rangers by James Joseph Williamson and Ranger Mosby by Virgil Carrington Jones.

The 2 verses are quoted in God Knows All Your Names: Stories in American History by Paul N. Herbert.


The Chorus above Bright Crowns... also seems to come from a (Salvation Army?) hymn of that name:

  "Bright crowns there are, bright crowns laid up on high,
  For you and me there's a palm of victory;
  There's a palm of victory.

(see: ISEW).


And re Joe's earlier extrapolation, the Jon Raven book does seem to have the song under the title Bright Crowns are Laid Up.


Mick