"Old Gray Mare', 'Out of the Wilderness' and variants (including 'Jine the Cavalry') ...

Widespread song that dates from before the Civil War. "The Old Gray Mare" is said by said by at least three writers (cited in Wikipedia) to be a reference to Lady Suffolk, who broke a speed record in the 1840s in Hoboken, N.J., when she was more than 10 years old (cf. the account in Suite101.com by freelance sportswriter BarbaraAnne Helberg). There's also "Here we sit like birds in the wilderness" and something about green, greasy gopher guts I'm trying hard not to remember. My hunch: The tune is catchy, and it was tricked out with all kinds of lyrics early.

Fiddlers' Companion lumps some of these songs, at least the ones that got into fiddle players' repertory, as "The Old Gray Mare (Came Tearing Out of the Wilderness" and has this on the "old gray mare" and "out of the wilderness" songs in general:

OUT OF THE WILDERNESS. AKA and see "Johnny Stole a Ham," "The White Horse [2]," "The Old Grey Mare (Came Tearing Out of the Wilderness)." American, Song and Dance Tune (2/4 or 4/4 time). USA, southwestern Pa. G Major. Standard tuning. AABB. The tune to the familiar ditty which goes:
***
The old grey mare, she ain't what she used to be,
Ain't what she used to be, ain't what she used to be.
***
Irwin Silber ("Songs of the Civil War") identifies the composer of this tune as J. Warner, who originally called it "Down in Alabam" (though of course he may have adapted a folk tune). Just prior to the Civil War one parody composed to it was called "Old Abe Lincoln Came Out of the Wilderness." Sources for notated versions: Hoge MS (Pa., 1944) and Marion Yoders (fifer and fiddler from Greene County, Pa., 1963) [Bayard]. Bayard (Dance to the Fiddle), 1981; No. 271, pg. 228.

Wikipedia has lyrics and a brief history. Including:

JINE THE CAVALRY!

CHORUS:
If you want to have a good time, jine the cavalry!
Jine the cavalry! Jine the cavalry!
If you want to catch the Devil, if you want to have fun,
If you want to smell Hell, jine the cavalry!


We're the boys who went around McClellian,
Went around McClellian, went around McClellian!
We're the boys who went around McClellian,
Bully boys, hey! Bully boys, ho!

CHORUS:
If you want to have a good time, jine the cavalry!
Jine the cavalry! Jine the cavalry!
If you want to catch the Devil, if you want to have fun,
If you want to smell Hell, jine the cavalry!

And this ...

Ol' Joe Hooker, won't you come out of The Wilderness?
Come out of The Wilderness, come out of The Wilderness?
Ol' Joe Hooker, won't you come out of The Wilderness?
Bully boys, hey! Bully boys, ho!

CHORUS

Also 2nd S.C. playing "Jine the Cavalry" audio only ... cf. this clip with sound on film, but shot from a distance.