I Wanna Be In The Cavalry : Reprise Lyrics - Corb Lund

lyrics by Corb Lund, music by Stan Rogers / Corb Lund 

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 favourite mare with her head in the air took the cannons 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 was get us home unharmed 

O for the day that we signed our names and the well that we were wished 

The mens 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 proved 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 wed burnt their crops to charred and barren ground 

With morale in doubt and our pride run out no honour did I see 

All I seen were a thousand dreams piled dead in front of me 

I wanna be in the cavalry if the send me off to war 

I wanna be in the cavalry but I wont ride home no more