What Did the Rebel Yell Sound Like?

[eldenwaff]

What does the Rebel Yell sound like? well, after hearing that...nothing to shout about...

More than likely far more intimidating when 1,000's of young men shout it in cold blood on a field of battle vs a few old drunk men decades later.

[Greg]

More than likely far more intimidating when 1,000's of young men shout it in cold blood on a field of battle vs a few old drunk men decades later.

The (former) Museum of the Confederacy put together a recording in which they used this version of the Rebel Yell to create synthesized versions of what it may have sounded like when given by a battalion (regiment) of 1,000 men, a brigade of around 3,000 men, division, corps, and even an army. Even though the presentation is clearly an electronic creation, the sound when made by the larger formations is truly eerie.

I wish I had Douglas Southall Freeman's "Lee's Lieutenants" here, but I'll have to paraphrase his description of a famous incident in the Army of Northern Virginia. In May 1864, during the Wilderness/Spotsylvania campaign, at night one unit toward the right of the Confederate lines raised the Rebel Yell. Other units took it up, and it swept from division to division and regiment to regiment in the darkness till it reached the end of the lines on the left flank. Again the cry was raised, and went down the lines. A third time the shout of defiance was raised and hurled toward the Yankee lines, until its echoes died out far across the Rappahannock (river).

Best,
Greg

[Larry Davis]

What the Rebel Yell Sounded Like video on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mGAesLYlF8

Was this the recording you were referring to?

Here is another I found of old vets doing the yell, I believe in the 1920's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Las17ywdN0

Plus there are many other examples in the Youtube sidebar.

I don't think the overweight reenactors do it justice at all.

It's part of history, and we should not be forced to forget it!

[Nachrichten]

Shelby Foote had something to say about it in the Burns Mini-series.

Something to the effect of:

"a foxhunt yip mixed up with sort of a banshee squall".

He also quotes a veteran as saying that it could not be done (in old age) with "a belly full of food and a mouth full of false teeth".

N

[Ludwig]

Found another yell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya3J3GuJFmE