A British surgeon, Dr. Richard Schuckberg, is credited with writing down "Yankee Doodle Dandy" after the French and Indian War. When the American War of Independence broke out, the song gained popularity with British troops because
it derided the provinciality of colonial culture and speech (there are around 190 verses that poke great fun). On their way to Lexington and Concord in 1775, the British supposedly sang this verse:
Yankee Doodle's come to town For to buy a firelock, We will tar and feather him And so will we John Hancock.
The Yankees adopted the song and its observations about them as a point of pride. They might have been a ragtag army, badly uniformed, underequipped, rarely paid, but they beat back the force of an empire. Their exuberance shows in the verse that the original Yankee Doodle Dandies used to round off their song:
Yankee Doodle is the tune That we all delight in, It suits for feasts, it suits for fun, And just as well for fightin'.