2:31
single, 1959
Written by Jimmy Driftwood, 1936
A novelty country song that adapts a military march for its beat. The writer, Jimmy Driftwood, was a school principal in Arkansas with a passion for history. He set an account of the battle to an old fiddle tune in an attempt to get students interested in learning history. Driftwood's version adds fun to the lesson, with his yodeling, nasal voice, the "hup-two-three" background voices, and his silly humor ("We fired our cannon 'til the barrel melted down / So we grabbed an alligator and we fought another round / We filled his head with cannonballs 'n' powdered his behind / And when we touched the powder off, the gator lost his mind"). Historically accurate? Citation needed.
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