I Wanna Be In The Cavalry (Full)

The full story of the cavalryman. -- Original song by Corb Lund Band!
I'll warn you ahead-of-time that this song changes tone significantly with the reprise.

Lyrics:

I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war
I wanna steed under me like my forefathers before
I wanna mount when the bugle sounds and I hear the cannons' roar
I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war

Well, I wanna horse in the volunteer force that's riding forth at dawn
Please save for me some gallantry that will echo when I'm gone
I beg of you sarge let me lead the charge when the battle lines are drawn
Lemme at least leave a good hoof beat they'll remember loud and long

Well, I’d not a good foot soldier make, I'd be sour and slow at march
And I'd be sick on a navy ship, and the sea would leave me parched
But I'd be first in line if they'll let me ride, by god, you'll see my starch
Lope back o'er the heath with the laurel wreath underneath that vict’ry arch

So, I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war
I wanna good steed under me like my forefathers before
I wanna mount when the bugle sounds and I hear the cannons' roar
I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war

Well let me earn my spurs in the battle's blur where the day is lost or won
Well I'll wield my lance as the ponies dance and the blackguards fire their guns
With a sabre keen, and a saddle carbine and an army Remington
Where the hot lead screams with the cold, cold steel let me be a cav’lryman

So, I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war
I wanna good steed under me like my forefathers before
I wanna mount when the bugle sounds and I hear the cannons' roar
I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war

Well let 'em play their flutes and stirrup my boots and place them back in front
And I won’t be back on the rider-less black lest I'm finished in my hunt
Oh, I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war
I wanna be in the cavalry, but I won't ride home no more

I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war
I wanna good steed under me like my forefathers before

Courageous at first we took their worst, our positions we held stout
We clung to belief and we hung on the speech from our trusted leaders' mouths
Overwhelming odds and a hopeless cause and our cities overrun
There were them that said we was badly led and God were we outgunned

I lost count of the worthy mounts that from under me were cut
My favorite mare with her head in the air took the cannon in her gut
In the first two weeks on that bloody creek my brother lost his arm
Was only sixty days till all we prayed us to get us home unharmed

O for the day that we signed our names and the well that we were wished
The men's congrats and the pats on the backs and the ladies that we kissed
The band that played and the grande parade and the patriotic shouts
All faded fast, didn't even last till the uniforms wore out

And there were none to replace nor to help us face the winters cold and bleak
That chilled to the bone the pneumonia prone and froze our bootless feet
Then the typhoid hit with its fevered fits, TB and dysentery
That prove in the end to have killed more men than the vilest enemy

We were finally forced to feed on horse and carcass we could scrounge
When the wagons stopped and we'd burnt their crops to tarred and barren ground
With morale in doubt and our pride run out no honor did I see
All I seen were a thousand dreams piled dead in front of me

I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war
I wanna be in the cavalry but I won't ride home no more...