“We've Done Our Hitch in Hell”
Description
"I'm sitting here a-thinking Of the things I left behind." The singer complains of digging trenches, cooking, fighting rattlesnakes, and the rest of army life, and claims a front seat in heaven for the Third Wyoming
Notes
The irony of this song is that it appears the Third Wyoming never went into combat! Observe: There is reference to the digging of trenches. But only two American wars involved digging trenches: The Civil War and World War I. At the time of the Civil War, Wyoming wasn't a state (it joined the Union in 1890), and in World War I there were no rattlesnakes.
In addition, there is no reference to combat. One hates to think what the soldier would have had to say if someone had actually bothered to shoot at him. - RBW
References
- Lomax-ABFS, pp. 552-554, "We've Done Our Hitch in Hell" (1 text)
- Roud #15545
- BI, LxA552