Posted on 06/28/2005 6:51:41 PM PDT by stainlessbanner
Civil War mystery may be solved by modern technology.
(PRWEB) June 28, 2005 -- One of the mysteries of American Civil War lore may have finally been solved.
The famous rebel yell, long known to have an unnerving effect on Union soldiers in the American Civil War, has just been examined by the History Publishing Company. Using as its core base, the only known yell by a living Confederate soldier recorded early in the Twentieth Century, History Publishing Company, through the use of sound technology, has emulated the sound of a company of soldiers charging a Union line.
The effect was startling, said Don Bracken, Senior Editor of History Publishing and Civil War author( Times of the Civil War, ISBN 1-4208-0694-7). It wasnt a frightening sound in the nightmarish or fiendish sense. It was an audible sensation of being overwhelmed. It was like having a sonic tidal wave approach you. What might have unnerved the Union soldiers who reportedly fled from it was a sense of helplessness.
The rebel yell has long been a source of curiosity to students of the Civil War. It was a recognized fact that seasoned Union veterans would become unnerved by it. When we came across the recorded yell made in the early Twentieth Century, of an actual Confederate veteran of the Army of Northern Virginia, we knew we had to take it a step further, said Don Bracken.Technology has made it possible to do that.
History Publishing Company, a company dedicated to furthering the study of history through modern technology will make the sound recording of the Confederate charge available to schools or Civil War study groups for educational purposes.
Mo! Mo! Mo!
General Pickett was heard, "Up men, and to your posts! Don't forget today that you are from old Virginia!"
If you saw the PBS series on the Civil War they had a film of some cofederate veterans marching in a parade. One of the vets gave a yell similar to the one posted here but with more of a corkscrew sound to it.
NOW it is scary, no?
Might be interesting to ya!
http://www.26nc.org/History/RebelYell/main.htm
I keep trying to find a family connection. But the only unit I've identified so far was my great-grandfather's, the 8th Virginia Cavalry.
I bet the veterans of the Army of Northern Virginia let out a friendly rebel yell to welcome Shelby Foote to heaven...
As a born and lifelong southernor, I can tell you it is not so different from a screech owl.
I have heard it a few times, but mostly from drunk southern rednecks.
It's the sound of desperation.
You can say that again.
You just swig a pint or two of old Rebel Yell
and you will
Post #30 on this thread (2nd link) has a .wav file that was taken from the video "Echoes of the Blue and Gray" during the last Gettysburg Reunion. It was done at the "angle" in Gettysburg when Confederate and Union veterans shook hands over the wall. Although the man is old, this is truly a "Rebel Yell" ... as for the other link on this thread... I've never heard it before.
How can you extrapolate the sound of one guy who was probably in his nineties to the sound of a troop of young men in their prime?
I think a rebel yell was pretty fearsome - enough to scare a whole corps of blue-bellies.
Heck,
When I moved to Louisiana from Tennessee, and went to college, I somehow got myself into a radio and TV broadcasting course.
After the whole classroom laughed at me I decided to be a PRINT journalist.
I can write, but I can't talk. I've been in some situations in the past few years where my midwestern friends said I had to learn how to talk "properly."
And, put me in the right situation and I can scream a rebel yell.
Only I don't know of any words to put it writing. But I can yell it!!
We used to relive this yell thing as lads playing Shiloh or whatnot.
Unlike Beauregaurd, we actually drove Grant back in the river.
I look forward to that day........
I stood on the spot on the Manassas National Battlefield where Daniel Webster's son stood with his New Hampshire artillerymen and listened to 30,000 of Longstreet's men coming up over the next rise at the charge. When they crested the rise, someone said later, they looked like an ocean coming. It must have been an absolutely awesome spectacle -- and sound!
Young Webster paid for the privilege with his life. A boulder of New Hampshire granite marks the spot where he was killed.
His artillery managed to hold Longstreet back just long enough, just a few minutes, that the rest of the Union left could get away and not be overwhelmed and crushed. The rest of the battle was a footrace, with death from behind culling the slow and tardy.
Hey Stainless,
There's a moment in "God's and Generals" when Jackson's Corps hits the Union flank at Chancellorsville that they give the Rebel yell. It probably doesn't give it full justice but it gives me goose-bumps.
Rebel yell ping
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