For you Civil War Buffs: -The Rebel Yell-

[soonerhubs]

I was listening to NPR this afternoon when Dick Gordon had a story on about The Rebel Yell. They played recordings of it, apparently provided by veterans at an anniversary of the war.

They then played a recording of what it may sound like if large amounts of soldiers made the yell.

It just intrigued me.

That's all.

Wikipedia Article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_yell)

CzOAbekZoOc

ssLMroT2euQ

[yankee]

No wonder the south lost.

[SouthCarolinaSooner]

Thats my great-great-great uncle yelling in the second video, great find!

C&C Dean, now you can see who didn't raise me right...

[SicEmBaylor]

No wonder the south lost.

That was the last thing 350,000 of your people heard. Unfortunately, I wish it had been at least 350,000 more. Nearly a million yankee dead would be a very good start.

[OhU1]

Sounds like a herd of hound dogs chasing, um, a coon, at the end of the 2nd clip. :eek:

[lexsooner]

Sounds like a herd of hound dogs chasing, um, a coon, at the end of the 2nd clip. :eek:

The first clip sounded like a flock of those annoying black birds descending on the trees in the backyard. The second clip sounded like, well, it was just annoying. I will take Sergeant York and his turkey call any day over this awful sound. You probably can hear it today from the stands when Junior drives by during a NASCAR race.

[SouthCarolinaSooner]

The first clip sounded like a flock of those annoying black birds descending on the trees in the backyard. The second clip sounded like, well, it was just annoying. I will take Sergeant York and his turkey call any day over this awful sound. You probably can hear it today from the stands when Junior drives by during a NASCAR race.
This is very true

[soonerhubs]

I tried to put myself in the shoes of the Union Soldiers, and I can imagine that would be quite scary (Granted we could all say stuff like, "That's nothing, compared to AC/DC!").

Per the wikipedia article: "Anecdotes from former Union Soldiers described the yell with reference to "a peculiar corkscrew sensation that went up your spine when you heard it" along with a claim that "if you claim you heard it and weren't scared that means you never heard it"."

[lexsooner]

I was listening to NPR this afternoon when Dick Gordon had a story on about The Rebel Yell. They played recordings of it, apparently provided by veterans at an anniversary of the war.

They then played a recording of what it may sound like if large amounts of soldiers made the yell.

It just intrigued me.

That's all.

Wikipedia Article (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebel_yell)

CzOAbekZoOc

ssLMroT2euQ

The narration on the second video sounds a lot like that of someone who is describing sounds from the animal kingdom in an educational program about wildlife. "Now, you will hear the call of the Slow Footed Dick Dick of the Marianna Islands - Woot, woot, heyahhhhh!" Draw your own conclusions, folks.

[A Sooner in Texas]

That was the last thing 350,000 of your people heard. Unfortunately, I wish it had been at least 350,000 more. Nearly a million yankee dead would be a very good start.

charlie/The south sucked at WINNING\sheen

[Partial Qualifier]

The lack of Billy Idol references is troubling

[yankee]

That was the last thing 350,000 of your people heard. Unfortunately, I wish it had been at least 350,000 more. Nearly a million yankee dead would be a very good start.

And to think, all those poor Union soldiers dead, and the rebs still got their asses kicked. I see it still stings, even 150 years later. http://www.planetsmilies.com/smilies/happy/happy0032.gif

[Pricetag]

The narration on the second video sounds a lot like that of someone who is describing sounds from the animal kingdom in an educational program about wildlife.
Tulsans, tell me this narrator doesn't sound exactly like Henry Primeaux. I expected the video to end, "And Sam's is still next door."

[SouthCarolinaSooner]

And to think, all those poor Union soldiers dead, and the rebs still got their asses kicked. I see it still stings, even 150 years later. http://www.planetsmilies.com/smilies/happy/happy0032.gif
Congrats, it took you four years to subdue what was essentially a third world nation.

EDIT: Although I guess thats quicker than what Uncle Sam can do nowadays?

[yankee]

Congrats, it took you four years to subdue what was essentially a third world nation.


Just delayed the inevitable. The South had Lee. The North didn't get a major competent general till Grant and Sherman started kicking *** and taking names.

[Leroy Lizard]

The lack of Billy Idol references is troubling

No mention of the whiskey either.

[MrJimBeam]

The Rebel Yell is only unnerving if you are in the condition the Federals might have been in........at Chancellorsville with Stonewall Jackson turning your right flank. If you heard that screeching yell in that situation you would run. Just like the Federals did.

[SoonerJack]

The lack of Billy Idol references is troubling
^ This

[SouthCarolinaSooner]

Just delayed the inevitable. The South had Lee. The North didn't get a major competent general till Grant and Sherman started committing war crimes
Fixed

[oudanny]

Thanks for posting. That was interesting.

[NormanPride]

That was the last thing 350,000 of your people heard. Unfortunately, I wish it had been at least 350,000 more. Nearly a million yankee dead would be a very good start.

Maybe if they weren't so busy hooting like morons they could have fought a bit better and lost by less. Then maybe your moral victories could be a little sweeter.

Confeds = aggie

[ouwasp]

Silly rebs shoulda yelled louder during Pickett's Charge... or at least found some artillery guys that could yell, aim, and stuff...

[OUmillenium]

It's referred to in Ken Burns Civil War series episode 1. Shelby Foote is featured a lot in that series.

[SouthCarolinaSooner]

Confeds = aggie
I've never gotten this insult at all

[NormanPride]

I've never gotten this insult at all
Constantly whine about past victories despite being demonstrably inferior.
Weird yells and hand waving rituals mostly stolen from other places.
Frequently thinks back to glory years when they were only slightly inferior.
Unhealthy love of livestock.

Who am I talking about?

[SouthCarolinaSooner]

Constantly whine about past victories despite being demonstrably inferior.
Weird yells and hand waving rituals mostly stolen from other places.
Frequently thinks back to glory years when they were only slightly inferior.
Unhealthy love of livestock.

Who am I talking about?
When was Okie lite ever only "slightly" inferior?

[ouduckhunter]

Very interesting! I think that I've seen that first clip on the history channel before, but I've not heard the second. The intensity picks up towards the end of it, and I can see where that might be a little scary, especially with all the other noise, smoke, smells etc in the air too.

[NormanPride]

When was Okie lite ever only "slightly" inferior?

They were pretty effing good in the 80s.

But we were better. :D

[SouthCarolinaSooner]

They were pretty effing good in the 80s.

But we were better. :D
So Barry Sanders = Robert E Lee?

[Mississippi Sooner]

A friend of mine has a house on a private lake down here where we usually get together to celebrate New Year's Eve. The people who live on that lake are an interesting mix of rich folks who have their second, play houses there and the ordinary old rednecks with their double-wides.

A few years ago, I had to test a theory. About ten minutes til midnight, when I was sure most everyone in the area would be outside ready to set off their fireworks, I cut loose with the most ear piercing rebel yell I could muster. And, just as I expected, the other rednecks in the area picked up the yell and took it from one end of the lake and back again. I took another swig from the whiskey jug and thought yeah, no doubt I'm in the south.

[NormanPride]

Heh, I guess so.

[yankee]

Maybe if they weren't so busy hooting like morons they could have fought a bit better and lost by less. Then maybe your moral victories could be a little sweeter.

Confeds = aggie

Spot on.

[SoonerBorn68]

Just delayed the inevitable. The South had Lee. The North didn't get a major competent general till Grant and Sherman started kicking *** and taking names.

Just means Lincoln was a dumas along with Little Mac, Burnside, et. all.

It took a drunken failure to finally figure out a war of attrition.

[SoonerBorn68]

Maybe if they weren't so busy hooting like morons they could have fought a bit better and lost by less. Then maybe your moral victories could be a little sweeter.

Confeds = aggie

Don't you have a tree to hug or a chore to do for Badger?

[NormanPride]

Don't you have a tree to hug or a chore to do for Badger?
Go pretend to lose to the North again. Maybe afterward you can pantomime all the power being drained from the states to fuel your ire.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a states rights guy as well, but this "South will rise again" bull**** is so aggie it hurts.

[Aldebaran]

Filthy traitors. States rights is now and always has been the rhetoric of losers on the national stage. Besides, the only "right" the south was worried about protecting was slavery.

[King Barry's Back]

Thanks for posting. That was interesting.

I second that.

What made the Rebel Yell terrifying wasn't the sound itself. What made it terrifying is the fact that if you heard that sound, grapeshot and canister (giant shotgun-shells for artillery) would already be ripping into your lines, killing your friends and comrades to the right and left of you.

Musket balls may already be flying into your lines, or you know they will begin falling in the next seconds.

Then bayonets, knives and clubs, men's fists and elbows, will be pushed against your face, your body, arms and legs.

And you know those men making that sound are coming for you, they are telling you that they are coming for you.

When you hear that sound, maybe even before you see those battle-hardened killers marching against you, you know there's a good chance you'll die today.

Even in the later battles, when the final outcome of the war was becoming inevitable, even then, Confederates inflicted far greater casualties on the Union forces. Union generals were able to replace those losses, which is why they won, but that was cold solace for the men who fell before victory.

Yeah, it's easy for the internet generation to laugh at some old men whooping and hollering in the early days of recording technology.

But there's more to it than that. Remember, the only reason we know the Rebel Yell was terrifying at all, or even what it sounded like, is because Union soldiers wrote about how scared they were of it until it became a legend.

[soonerhubs]

I second that.

What made the Rebel Yell terrifying wasn't the sound itself. What made it terrifying is the fact that if you heard that sound, grapeshot and canister (giant shotgun-shells for artillery) would already be ripping into your lines, killing your friends and comrades to the right and left of you.

Musket balls may already be flying into your lines, or you know they will begin falling in the next seconds.

Then bayonets, knives and clubs, men's fists and elbows, will be pushed against your face, your body, arms and legs.

And you know those men making that sound are coming for you, they are telling you that they are coming for you.

When you hear that sound, maybe even before you see those battle-hardened killers marching against you, you know there's a good chance you'll die today.

Even in the later battles, when the final outcome of the war was becoming inevitable, even then, Confederates inflicted far greater casualties on the Union forces. Union generals were able to replace those losses, which is why they won, but that was cold solace for the men who fell before victory.

Yeah, it's easy for the internet generation to laugh at some old men whooping and hollering in the early days of recording technology.

But there's more to it than that. Remember, the only reason we know the Rebel Yell was terrifying at all, or even what it sounded like, is because Union soldiers wrote about how scared they were of it until it became a legend.


Thank you! That's what I was hoping more folks would get out of it.

[SoonerBorn68]

Go pretend to lose to the North again. Maybe afterward you can pantomime all the power being drained from the states to fuel your ire.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a states rights guy as well, but this "South will rise again" bull**** is so aggie it hurts.

I have no illusions of a new rebellion nor live in the past. History is what it is. It's just the smug attitude of your elementary level knowledge of the event that is so laughable.

[SCOUT]

I second that.

What made the Rebel Yell terrifying wasn't the sound itself. What made it terrifying is the fact that if you heard that sound, grapeshot and canister (giant shotgun-shells for artillery) would already be ripping into your lines, killing your friends and comrades to the right and left of you.

Musket balls may already be flying into your lines, or you know they will begin falling in the next seconds.

Then bayonets, knives and clubs, men's fists and elbows, will be pushed against your face, your body, arms and legs.

And you know those men making that sound are coming for you, they are telling you that they are coming for you.

When you hear that sound, maybe even before you see those battle-hardened killers marching against you, you know there's a good chance you'll die today.

Even in the later battles, when the final outcome of the war was becoming inevitable, even then, Confederates inflicted far greater casualties on the Union forces. Union generals were able to replace those losses, which is why they won, but that was cold solace for the men who fell before victory.

Yeah, it's easy for the internet generation to laugh at some old men whooping and hollering in the early days of recording technology.

But there's more to it than that. Remember, the only reason we know the Rebel Yell was terrifying at all, or even what it sounded like, is because Union soldiers wrote about how scared they were of it until it became a legend.
+1
No need for me to comment further.

[SouthCarolinaSooner]

Filthy traitors. States rights is now and always has been the rhetoric of losers on the national stage. Besides, the only "right" the south was worried about protecting was slavery.
So what?

[OUmillenium]

A friend of mine has a house on a private lake down here where we usually get together to celebrate New Year's Eve. The people who live on that lake are an interesting mix of rich folks who have their second, play houses there and the ordinary old rednecks with their double-wides.

A few years ago, I had to test a theory. About ten minutes til midnight, when I was sure most everyone in the area would be outside ready to set off their fireworks, I cut loose with the most ear piercing rebel yell I could muster. And, just as I expected, the other rednecks in the area picked up the yell and took it from one end of the lake and back again. I took another swig from the whiskey jug and thought yeah, no doubt I'm in the south.

That is awesome. You should do it again this year and video it, then post it. cool

[King Barry's Back]

I second that.

What made the Rebel Yell terrifying wasn't the sound itself. What made it terrifying is the fact that if you heard that sound, grapeshot and canister (giant shotgun-shells for artillery) would already be ripping into your lines, killing your friends and comrades to the right and left of you.

Musket balls may already be flying into your lines, or you know they will begin falling in the next seconds.

Then bayonets, knives and clubs, men's fists and elbows, will be pushed against your face, your body, arms and legs.

And you know those men making that sound are coming for you, they are telling you that they are coming for you.

When you hear that sound, maybe even before you see those battle-hardened killers marching against you, you know there's a good chance you'll die today.

Even in the later battles, when the final outcome of the war was becoming inevitable, even then, Confederates inflicted far greater casualties on the Union forces. Union generals were able to replace those losses, which is why they won, but that was cold solace for the men who fell before victory.

Yeah, it's easy for the internet generation to laugh at some old men whooping and hollering in the early days of recording technology.

But there's more to it than that. Remember, the only reason we know the Rebel Yell was terrifying at all, or even what it sounded like, is because Union soldiers wrote about how scared they were of it until it became a legend.

Thanks for all the positive comments I got on this post. The Civil War generation is so distant from us that we modern Americans have almost lost all touch with them. But they were living, breathing, bleeding and dying human beings, just like us.

When I was writing that post, I kept seeing in my head a replay of that scene in Jurassic Park where the kid with no imagination says that to him, [I]velociraptors[I] just looked like big turkeys. Then Sam Neil slides that raptor claw across his mid-section and his eyes get big.

I didn't want to scare anyone like that, I just wanted to bring a little moment of the war to life.

I hope this 150th Anniversary year helps us to have some understanding of what the war meant to 1860s Americans, and what it felt like to them.

[Lott's Bandana]

How many of us skeered the **** out of our dogs, kids, spouses...by yelling at our computers while reading this thread?


<raising hand>