A Song from The American Songbag by Carl Sandburg

[LincolnMan]

Continuing on in The American Songbag book, there is I Was Born Almost Ten Thousand Years Ago. It is also known as "The Bragging Song." It has been covered by a few recording artists over the years, most notably Elvis Presley. However, the Elvis version did not include the following stanza as in the book:

"Queen Elizabeth she fell in love with me
We were married in Milwaukee secretly,
But I schemed around and shook her,
And I went with General Hooker
To shoot mosquitoes down in Tennessee."

So there is our Civil War reference in the old tune. Wonder what it was like to shoot mosquitoes with General Hooker down in Tennessee? Come to think of it, wasn't General Hooker given to bragging also?