Uploaded December 2020 | Updated September 2026, 6 days ago
ay 273 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: "This is a little tough on the Brass Hats but they are used to it.
"The text is from Harold and Verner Johnson of New York City."
ADDITIONAL INFO: Internal evidence clearly dates this to the First World War, with its trenches and barbed wire and mud that threatened to swallow the Allied armies whole. Jerry Silverman includes it in his book Ballads & Songs of WWI, without indication of source. What's more, until WWI, officers -- including brigade and sometimes even divisional officers -- were expected to lead their men from the front. Only in the twentieth century did officers become so valuable that they were allowed to "lead" from the rear. Thus it can hardly be from before World War I, and the earliest collections show that it cannot be from after.
ay 273 of the American Songbag Stay-at-Home Series
Sandburg writes: "This is a little tough on the Brass Hats but they are used to it.
"The text is from Harold and Verner Johnson of New York City."
ADDITIONAL INFO: Internal evidence clearly dates this to the First World War, with its trenches and barbed wire and mud that threatened to swallow the Allied armies whole. Jerry Silverman includes it in his book Ballads & Songs of WWI, without indication of source. What's more, until WWI, officers -- including brigade and sometimes even divisional officers -- were expected to lead their men from the front. Only in the twentieth century did officers become so valuable that they were allowed to "lead" from the rear. Thus it can hardly be from before World War I, and the earliest collections show that it cannot be from after.
