As for the Ballad Index 1941 reference, Meade et alia give a later Decca issue by Kazee with no date - De F3789. That may be the one the index refers to. There was also a Supertone issue in June 1931 [Spt S2045].

Meade's earliest printed version is: 'Delaney's Songbook #15; 'Glory Songs' (1909), #165 credits T.B. Mosely'. [Delaney's Songbook, #1-88, NYC, Wm W. Delaney, 1892-1921]. Meade also references Belden - 'Ballads and Songs Collected By the Folk-Lore Society of Missouri' Columbia, Mo: University of Missouri Studies, Vol XV, #1 1940; reprinted 1955, 1966 - and notes that, at page 277, oral evidence is provided that the song dates to the 1850s.

--Stewie.