A popular tune with several variations, "The Girl I Left Behind Me", may have been imported into America around 1650 as "Brighton Camp",[2] of which a copy dating from around 1796 resides in the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Still, although I bask beneath their smile, Their charms will fail to bind me And my heart falls back to Erin's isle To the girl I left behind me.

Though many a name our banner bore Of former deeds of daring But they were of the day of yore In which we had no sharing But now our laurels freshly won With the old one shall entwine me Singing worthy of our size each son Sweet girl I left behind me

These are the lyrics popular among the army in the 19th century: I'm lonesome since I crossed the hill And over the moor that's sedgy Such lonely thoughts my heart do fill Since parting with my Betsey

[13] Bertha Lauderdale of Fayetteville, Arkansas sang a version to Parler beginning "Oh they dressed me up in scarlet red", which she learnt from her Irish grandfather who said it had been sung that way during the American Revolutionary War.

The theme "The Girl I Left Behind" can be heard as an overlay in Glenn Miller's arrangement of "American Patrol", popularised during World War II.

Within the chapter is a further reference to the song: “Jack or Donald marches away to glory with his knapsack on his shoulder, stepping out briskly to the tune of ‘The Girl I left behind me’.

In the 1980 movie The Long Riders, set several years after the American Civil War, Keith Carradine sings a variant of the song[17] which Oscar Brand has recorded[18] under the title "The Wayward Boy", beginning: "I walk the street with a tap to my feet.

An uptempo version of the tune recorded by Pete Rugolo and His Orchestra served as the opening and closing theme of the 1961–1962 CBS situation comedy Ichabod and Me.

[21][22] "The Frogs and the Lobsters", an episode of the Hornblower television series, features the tune being played by a band of the Royal Marines, along with the first few bars of "Rule Britannia".

"The Girl I Left Behind" has been recorded many times, by The Skillet Lickers, Jay Ungar, The Avett Brothers, The Albion Band, Jules Allen and Molly Mason among others.

Last night I slept in a sycamore tree With the wind and rain all around me But tonight I'll sleep in a warm feather bed With the girl I left behind me