I Wanna Be In The Cavalry : Reprise lyrics

I wanna be in the cavalry if they send me off to warI wanna good steed under me like my forefathers beforeCourageous at first we took their worst, our positions we held stoutWe clung to belief and we hung on the speech from our trusted leaders' mouthsOverwhelming odds and a hopeless cause and our cities overrunThere were them that said we was badly led and God were we outgunnedI lost count of the worthy mounts that from under me were cutMy favourite mare with her head in the air took the cannons in her gutIn the first two weeks on that bloody creek my brother lost his armWas only sixty days till all we prayed was get us home unharmedO for the day that we signed our names and the well that we were wishedThe men's congrats and the pats on the backs and the ladies that we kissedThe band that played and the grande parade and the patriotic shoutsAll faded fast, didn't even last till the uniforms wore outAnd there were none to replace nor to help us face the winters cold and bleakThat chilled to
the bone the pneumonia prone and froze our bootless feetThen the typhoid hit with its fevered fits, TB and dysenteryThat proved in the end to have killed more men than the vilest enemyWe were finally forced to feed on horse and carcass we could scroungeWhen the wagons stopped and we'd burnt their crops to charred and barren groundWith morale in doubt and our pride run out no honour did I seeAll I seen were a thousand dreams piled dead in front of meI wanna be in the cavalry if the send me off to warI wanna be in the cavalry but I won't ride home no more