E                                 A              C#m
I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war
A                  E                E     B7      E
I wanna good steed under me like my forefathers before

[Verse 1]
E                                            A                 C#m
Courageous at first we took their worst, our positions we held stout
   A                      E                           E       E        B7
We clung to belief and we hung on the speech from our trusted leaders' mouths
    E                                          A          C#m
Overwhelming odds and a hopeless cause and our cities overrun
           A                     E             E        B7    E
There were them that said we was badly led and God were we outgunned

[Verse 2]
E                                            A                 C#m
I lost count of the worthy mounts that from under me were cut
 A                      E                           E      E        B7
My favourite mare with her head in the air took the cannon in her gut
E                                            A                 C#m
In the first two weeks on that bloody creek my brother lost his arm
 A                      E                           E       B7        E
Was only sixty days till all we prayed us to get us home unharmed

[Verse 3]
E                                            A                 C#m
O for the day that we signed our names and the well that we were wished
 A                      E                           E       E        B7
The men's congrats and the pats on the backs and the ladies that we kissed
E                                            A                 C#m
The band that played and the grande parade and the patriotic shouts
 A                      E                           E       B7        E
All faded fast, didn't even last till the uniforms wore out

[Verse 4]
E                                            A                 C#m
And there were none to replace nor to help us face the winters cold and bleak
 A                      E                           E       E        B7
That chilled to the bone the pneumonia prone and froze our bootless feet
E                                            A                 C#m
Then the typhoid hit with its fevered fits, TB and dysentery
 A                      E                           E       B7        E
That prove in the end to have killed more men than the vilest enemy

[Verse 5]
E                                            A                 C#m
We were finally forced to feed on horse and carcass we could scrounge
         A                       E                    E          E      B7
When the wagons stopped and we'd burnt their crops to tarred and barren ground
E                                            A                 C#m
With morale in doubt and our pride run out no honour did I see
 A                      E                           E       B7        E
All I seen were a thousand dreams piled dead in front of me

[Ending]
E                                 A              C#m
I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to war
A                 E             E          B7      E
I wanna be in the cavalry but I won't ride home no more