In case readers here may not be aware of this resource, here's a link to Kansas Historical Quarterly - Kansas Play-Party Songs by Myra E. Hull

November 1938 (Vol. 7, No. 4), pages 258 to 286
Transcribed by lhn; digitized with permission of the Kansas Historical Society:



Myra E. Hull writes "KANSAS Play-Party Songs" is a part of a collection of songs which I began to set down in 1929, as a memorial to my mother, Eliza Sinclair Hull, and her singing life. For eighty years there was always a song on her lips and in her heart. Through all the hardships of pioneer life, through the drudgery of rearing a family of seven, she sang. Her first song, in 1849, was

Oh, Susannah, don't you cry for me;
I'm going to California, the gold mines to see.

Her last song, in 1929, was "Old Black Joe." "

-snip-

I've found several examples in that compilation that may be sources of military cadences - for instance the line "I left my wife with 17 children" in the play party sound "Jumbo" reminds me of the line "I left my wife with 42 children..." which is often found in the Duckworth chant (Your Left, Your left, Your left, right, left).

And the play party song "Captain Jinks" (which Hull indicates was a popular Civil War song) reminds me of "Hey Ho Captain Jacks".

Among other songs found in that compilation is a version of "Tideo" and "Draw Me A Bucket Of Water". I've added several video & text examples of those two songs on this page of my Cocojams website:
http://cocojams.com/content/childrens-game-songs-and-movement-rhymes
Children's Game Songs And Movement Rhymes

It's likely that some of those play party songs were known in 1912 or thereabouts. Regretfully, most people nowadays don't know them.