There is nothing like it on this side of the infernal region. The peculiar corkscrew sensation that it sends down your backbone under these circumstances can never be told. You have to feel it.
A Union soldier in 1861 on the rebel yell.
A tribute to the courage with which Confederate soldiers fought their lopsided fight for independence was the fear inspired in Union ranks when they heard the high pitched wail of the Rebel yell. It is a pity that sound recordings were more than a decade in the future at the time of the Civil War. We do have recordings of Confederate veterans screeching the yell, but they would invariably state that it was only a pale reflection of what the yell sounded like during the War. Financier Bernard Baruch recalled how his father, a surgeon who had served in the Confederate Army, would let loose with it whenever he heard Dixie:
As soon as the tune started Mother knew what was coming and so did we boys. Mother would catch him by the coattails and plead, ‘Shush, Doctor, shush’. But it never did any good. I have seen Father, ordinarily a model of reserve and dignity, leap up in the Metropolitan Opera House and let loose that piercing yell.
William Howard Russell, British war correspondent, described the yell thusly: “..the Southern soldiers cannot cheer, and what passes muster for that jubilant sound is a shrill ringing scream with a touch of the Indian war-whoop in it.”
Colonel Keller Anderson of the Confederate Kentucky Orphan Brigade comes close I think to describing its battefield effect: That maniacal maelstrom of sound; that penetrating, rasping, shrieking, blood-curdling noise that could be heard for miles and whose volume reached the heavens–such an expression as never yet came from the throats of sane men, but from men whom the seething blast of an imaginary hell would not check while the sound lasted.
The rebel yell was a manifestation of the spirt that impelled Confederate troops to defy the long odds against them for four bloody years and to bring to life the Southern maxim: It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.
Sounds from hell.
Wonder about its origins. Wild guess, Scotland? Sounds almost like a hunting cry to drive large game ahead of you. Any record of it in the South during the Revolution?
Wild guess, Scotland?
Definitely celtic.
Any record of it in the South during the Revolution?
Good question. I can’t recall any such reports.
Before mechanized and gunpowder warfare, men went at each other with blunt instruments and edged weapons. It was up close and personal, with blood everywhere.
Most men aren’t Hector or Achilles, and have to be driven to it. The Scotch-Irish, many Confederates, had a history of it.
The English vernacular “hubbub” is thought to have originated in the numerous, genocidal wars in Ireland. Often, the two sides would be lined up and both went through “rituals.” The mere Irish and Scottish gallowglass allies would have the war pipes, minstrels singing of brave deeds, priests giving absolution, and the group screaming things to a fever pitch: insults, dares, challenges, and “Abou!” – Gaelic for “victory.” Out of that the Saxon came up with “hubbub.” See the first big battle scene in the movie “Brave Heart.” In these situations, maybe it seemed “easier” psychologically to charge than to stand and receive a charge.
In 16th century French civil/dynastic/religious wars, Huguenot armies would go into battle singing Psalms.
BTW. The book “Rebel Yell” on T. Jackson is very good.
Reminds me of the war cries of attacking Indians in old westerns.
The sounds of battle and those of ancient armies has long been a puzzle to the modern man. I remember watching the movie “Gladiator” and for the Germanic tribes, they reused the Zulu chanting from the Great movie “Zulu”. It didn’t seem right. It didn’t seem very “german”.
BTW, When I first saw this post this morning I was thinking, “Why is Don posting about Billy Idol’s song?”
Rebel Yell was a whiskey smuggled into the VOL’s Neyland Football Stadium. That and Southern Comfort.
The Turks used drums, beating incessantly the night before battles and on the field. Their adversaries, the Poles, had the Hussars – cavalry who wore large feathered wings that made a high pitched sound when they charged the Turks.
When accessing TAC directly http://www.the-american-catholic.com only the July 03 post comes up. Through email like tonight it’s okay. Any ideas ?
We transitioned to a new server at that time and we are at war with the bugs that resulted.
Here’s a bug: https://63e5e399fa.nxcli.net/2020/07/03/fortnight-for-freedom-a-just-war.-2/
Thank? for the reply. Sure hope they are not Leftist bugs