Cadences, the oft raunchy and sometimes macabre but catchy tunes that the US Army personel sing whilst running have fascinated me for a good many years now, but I have never wondered as to where they come from. If anybody here could answer this query, that'd be swell.
The term cadence has been used for military time and step keeping for centuries. Originally it was a drummer or a sergeant giving counts and set commands for different marching drills. This is the meaning that marching bands have kept. This model was brought to the US by Baron Von Stuben in the revolutionary war.
Having a drummer with every training group is logistically difficult and only calling counts gets very boring after a while so Sergeants started doing the more "sing-song" or "work song" model when doing running and such over time. I am not sure when this transition happened but it probably did so when they started having physical conditioning in organized groups (running) as part of daily training.
Thucydides makes reference to the Spartan phalanx advancing to a cadence set by musical instruments at the Battle of Mantinea in 417bc.
'...the Argives and their allies advancing with great violence and fury, while the Spartans came on slowly and to the music of many flute-players in their ranks. This custom of theirs has nothing to do with religion;it is designed to make them keep in step and move forward steadily without breaking their ranks, as large armies often do when they are just about to join battle.'
Probably not as bawdry as it might be today but just as effective at keeping pace.