Tim, the verse starts something like this:
Here I sit on Buttermilk hill;
Who can blame me cry my fill?
And every tear would turn a mill--
Johnny has gone for a soldier.
It's on the DT, as is a variation called "Shule Agra" which begins with the line "With fife and drum he went away""gone for a soldier" in US Civil War times refers to the practice whereby, if a man had enough money, he could hire someone else to go in his place if he were drafted. The man he hired was said to have "gone for a soldier." The other song, Shule Agra, is British, out of York. The version of the song I learned had the mournful "shoolah" from the chorus spelled "shule" as I recall now. Makes me wonder if the American variation came out of the Jewish immigrant population, the younger generation of which may have been poor enough that the payment could have done much for the family, and could even have been seed money for starting a family business. --seed