In their AMERICAN BALLADS AND FOLK SONGS, John and Alan Lomax give a version collected from a Major Isaac Spalding, Office Chief of Staff, Washington, D.C., called "The Wild Miz-zou-rye" as an "old Cavalry song"(pp. 544-546).

For seven long years I courted Nancy,
Hi! Ho! the rolling river!
For seven long years I courted Nancy,
Ha! Ha! I'm bound away for the wild Miz-zou-rye!

She would not have me for a lover -

And so she took my fifteen dollars -

And she went to Kansas City -

And there she had a little sh-sh-baby
["When this is sung by a group of army men, the chorus sings "sh-sh" while one lone man breaks out irrepressibly with "baby."]

She must have had another lover -

He must have been a - th Cavalry Soldier -

I'm drinkin' of rum and chawin' tobacco -

I learned this song from Tommy Tompkins (!)-

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And Carl Sandburg, in his THE AMERICAN SONGBAG gives us "The Wide Missoura" (p. 408), saying that "regular army men were singing this in 1897".

O Shannadore, I love your daughter,
Hi-oh, you rolling river.
I'll take her 'cross the rolling water,
Ah-hah, I'm bound away 'cross the wide Mizzoura.

For seven years I courted Sally,
For seven more I longed to have her,

She said she would not be my lover,
Because I was a dirty sailor,

A-drinkin' rum and a-chewin' t'baccer,
A-drinkin' rum and a-chewin' t'baccer,