On the subject of the “Rebel Yell” Geoffrey Ward’s book “The Civil War” states on p. 222. " “We don’t really know what it sounded like. It was basically, I think, a sort of fox-hunt yip mixed up with a sort of banshee squall…”.
I’ve never been to any Civil War reenactments, but I can imagine participants acting the part of Confederates trying to come up with a likely version of it. Can anyone enlighten me on that question? I look forward to your feedback.
davidmich
It has always been a mystery to me why the Yankees found this terrifying.
I wouldn’t want to be charged by 1000 men with bayonets hooting like owls; but it wouldn’t be the hooting that worried me.
The Yankees did it, too, though their yell was deeper and – as they described it – “more manly.”
It meant that shit was about to get real – this wasn’t a skirmish, but rather a full-fledged attack. Since the battlefield was filled with smoke, you’d hear it before you saw anything. You were being warned that a ton of rebels were on their way, and a small force might just break and run, believing they were outnumbered.
Also, by yelling together the attack force is more bound together.
Or the defence force can immediately know where to aim.
Still not terrifying though. I know these guys in the YouTubes were pretty old; but voices of the mid-nineteenth century seem rather higher-pitched even when younger. ( From nineteenth century recordings etc… )
I don’t know if people before that were higher or lower ( although Henry VIII, like a lot of XXX-sized fellows, had a distinctively high voice, probably tenor ? [ for deep booming basses look to the little slender chaps ] )
Whether there’s any real connection or not, I have always thought/imagined it would sound like this yell from Thunder in the Sun (a decent enough movie in its day).
Or the defence force can immediately know where to aim.
Still not terrifying though. I know these guys in the YouTubes were pretty old; but voices of the mid-nineteenth century seem rather higher-pitched even when younger. ( From nineteenth century recordings etc… )
I seem to recall, but cannot cite, that Confederate veterans disagreed about the yell years after the war, and that the recorded versions are not necessarily authoritative. I know many historians regard the exact sound of the yell as lost to history…presumably they knew what they were talking about.
One tale from the war days is that when Stonewall Jackson’s men completed their flank march at Chancellorsville, it was late in the day, so they wasted little time forming a rough line and then went forward through the dense underbrush. Thorns and branches tore at their already-ragged clothes, Because they were trying to surprise the Union boys, no Rebel Yell was given before contact.
The Union troops on the extreme flank, a unit largely of German extraction, were cooking breakfast when hundreds of woodland animals began bounding out of the underbrush in terror. Allegedly many of them began laughing and pointing at the sight; only the veterans realized the terrified critters were being driven by a wave of humanity. Moments later, the half-clothed rebels, covered with scratches, emerged from the woods in great strength and began the yell as they swept down on the unprepared Germans, whose weapons were mostly stacked.
What many that dismiss the yells of the old confederate rebels forget is that they are yelling individually. When combined into what multiple numbers of confederates would scream together is when the thing becomes scary, really unnatural.
It seem that davidmich link was ignored as there was very little explanation about the clever recreation that was made.
It’s not like we haven’t had battle cries since the dawn of time. Some may have been more effective than others; either to improve one’s own spirits, or to lend cohesion, or to worry the foe. This one is less disturbing.
Ken Burns definitive miniseries The Civil War contained a bit of actual footage from the 75[sup]th[/sup] anniversary of the battle of Gettysburg. In this part of it a few of the old confederate veterans can be heard giving ‘the rebel yell’.
You’d think that screaming to get ones nerves up would be the default. The ancestors of many of the Confederates, the Celts and later the Scots, had run wildly into battle too. But the controlled formations of the Romans and English defeated them.
Under Gustavus Adolphus, the Swedes went into battle singing hymns, which unnerved their opponents because it showed tighter nerves than just wild yelling.
Union soldiers probably would be psychologically effected by the screaming, but only because they hadn’t been drilled as thoroughly as traditional European armies. But when the Texas Ranges used tactics they’d learned from the Comanches against a smaller force of German immigrants in the 32nd Indiana who knew how to form an infantry square, guess who won? Even the Japanese eventually gave up the Banzai charge.