Goober Peas

"Goober Peas"
Cover, sheet music, 1866
Song
Published	1866
Composer(s)	P. Nutt
Lyricist(s)	A. Pindar
Language	English

"Goober Peas" is a traditional folk song probably originating in the Southern United States. It was popular with Confederate soldiers during the American Civil War, and is still sung frequently in the South to this day. It has been recorded and sung by scores of artists, including Burl Ives, Tennessee Ernie Ford and The Kingston Trio.

The lyrics of "Goober Peas" are a description of daily life during the last few years of the Civil War for Southerners. After being cut off from the rail lines and their farm land, they had little to eat aside from boiled peanuts (or "goober peas") which often served as an emergency ration. Peanuts were also known as pindars and goobers.

Publication date on the earliest sheet music is 1866, published by A. E. Blackmar in New Orleans. Blackmar humorously lists A. Pindar as the lyricist and P. Nutt as the composer.

Verse 1

Verse 2

Verse 3

Verse 4

The Reverend Wayland Fuller Dunaway recorded a stanza of the song he heard while imprisoned at the Union prison on Johnson's Island, Ohio, during the latter part of the Civil War. Dunaway had been a captain in Co. I, 40th Virginia Infantry, when captured during the Battle of Falling Waters in July 1863. His stanza:

In an episode of M*A*S*H "Comrades in Arms" (S6E12), Hawkeye can be heard singing the chorus to himself and explaining to Margaret that it was "an old Civil War marching song".