I would not give a "thank ye"
For all the smiles the girls can give
Until I've killed a Yankee.
High private is a glorious rank,
There's wide room for promotion;
I 'll get a corporal's stripes some day,
When fortune's in the notion.
'T is true I have not seen a fight,
Nor have I smelt gunpowder,
But then the way I 'll pepper 'em