Lyr Add: Camp Gals (Civil War)

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: CAMP GALS (Civil War)
From: masato sakurai
Date: 20 Jun 03 - 09:36 AM

Three editions are at American Memory.

Camp gals. Air.- Year of Jubolo. J. Scott. J. H. Johnson, Song Publisher, ... Philada. [n. d.]

Camp gals. Air.- Year of Jubolo. ... Post Office Building, Nashville, Tenn. [n. d.]

Camp gals. Air.-Year of Jubolo. J. H. Johnson, Song publisher, ... Philadelphia [n. d.]

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: CAMP GALS (Civil War)
From: wysiwyg
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 08:26 PM

Thanks! I like it!

~S~

Subject: Lyr Add: CAMP GALS (Civil War)
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 19 Jun 03 - 07:47 PM

Lyr. Add: CAMP GALS

O, don't you see the camp girls running,
With their baskets in their hands?
They are going to camp, to cheat or swindle
Some poor soldier man.
Wnen Colonel Wagner sees them coming,
With a mournful smile he stands;
For well he knows their object is nothing,
But to rob some soldier man.

Chorus:
Soldiers laugh, ha! ha!
The girls they laugh hey! hey!
What will they do when the snow is falling,
And when the camp is gone away.

Some soldiers there are from Kentucky,
And think they are dreadful fast,
They are sworn to have the best of living,
As long as the bounty lasts.
They will pay five dollars for a porgie fish,
Some biscuits, eggs and ham,
And the girls are sworn never to carry change,
For the foolish contrabands.

Some go that's married, some that's single,
With a basket for a sham,
They swear by faith that they never had a lover
Till they saw some soldier man.
Sometimes they marry for to get his bounty,
Or to do the best they can,
With his watch and money they skedaddle,
And laugh at the soldier man.

If you should come home sick or wounded,
You will meet them on the street,
All dressed to death in the highest of fashion
Looking very neat.
If they find out you have got no money,
They have no time to stand,
They tell you quick you have got no bounty,
You are a wounded soldier man.

Air: year of Jubilo.
Note mention of contraband troops in the second verse. The ballad sheet has the name J. Scott, who possibly penned the lyrics. There is also the note "Composed by I. V. T. V. J." Published by J. H. Johnson, Philadelphia. From the Collection, Civil War Song Sheets, America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets, American Memory.

The bands of thieves, prostitutes and snake oil purveyers who preyed on the troops during the Civil War (as in all wars) are seldom remembered in programs on the War and in re-enactments, but they were always there.