The Girl I Left Behind
 Podcast: The Civil War and American Art, Episode 7, Smithsonian American Art Museum
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"The Girl I Left Behind" also known as "The Girl I Left Behind Me" is a long-standing popular folk tune and song, dated by most authorities to the late 18th or early 19th century.
The first known printed text of a song with this name appeared in the serial song collection The Charms of Melody, Dublin, Ireland, issue no. 72, printed in Dublin from 1791 and in Exshaw's Magazine (Dublin, September 1794). The earliest known version of the melody was printed about 1810 in Hime's Pocket Book for the German Flute or Violin (Dublin), vol. 3, p. 67, under the title "The Girl I left Behind Me" (National Library of Ireland, Dublin). Theodore Ralph claimed that it was known in America as early as 1650, under the name "Brighton Camp", but there is no evidence to support this assumption, and the only known tune of "Brighton Camp" differed from that of the song in question.
It has many variations and verses, for example "Blyth Camps, Or, the Girl I left behind Me" (1812, Newcastle), "Brighton Camp, or the Girl I left behind Me" (1815, Dublin, from which the "Brighton" title probably came), "Nonesuch," and others. Here is one example:
A number of Irish-language and English-language songs were set to this tune in Ireland in the 19th century, such as "An Spailpín Fánach" (translated into English as "The Rambling Labourer"), "The Rare Old Mountain Dew" (published New York, 1882) and in the 20th century, such as "Waxie's Dargle".
In England the tune is often known as "Brighton Camp" and is used for Morris dancing.
The song was popular in the US regular army, who adopted it during the War of 1812 after they heard a British prisoner singing it. The song was used by the Army as a marching tune throughout the 19th century.
These are the lyrics popular by the army in the 19th century:
During the Civil War the Confederates had their own version:
Abraham Lincoln's assassination inspired another version.
This tune has been quoted in some pieces of classical music, such as:
Josef Holbrooke wrote a set of orchestral variations on the song.
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.
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Wikipedia