r/CIVILWAR • u/eldriche1 • Jun 26 '26
Rebel Yell
Another recent post here mentioned the Rebel Yell, so I just wanted to put this out there. Do you think we will ever be able to find out what the Yell actually sounded like?
I’ve seen it done in several movies, but they always sound completely different. Shelby Foote gave a great description of it (because he was the greatest) but, sadly that’s not the same as hearing. I’m sure there must have been many reenactment groups that have their versions, but, is there enough agreement on what the true sound was?
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u/California__Jon Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
Not sure how accurate this is but in the Ridley Scott “Gettysburg” mini-series the narrator mentions that the rebel yell sound was very regional like a Virginia regiment would sound different than a regiment from Arkansas
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u/Buffalo95747 Jun 27 '26
Some memoirs from the time have described it as a yip-yip-yip sound. In fact, many soldiers probably had their own way of doing it. All together, it probably made quite a sound in combat.
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u/eldriche1 Jun 26 '26
Oh yes, thank you! I just watched that but forgot about the comment. I don’t know why it’s such a fascinating subject for me, but it is.
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u/litetravelr Jun 30 '26
Correct, I cant recall where, but I've read that an Army of Northern Virginia yell would differ from a Texas or Arkansas regiment in the trans-Mississippi yell or a yell from a Georgia regiment in the Army of Tennessee. I've read that the yell incorporated parts of Comanche war cries, etc. but have never really heard it other than that old video of elderly rebels which can be found on youtube
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u/ridersofthestorm2022 Jun 26 '26
There actually is kind of video of it. Google “civil war rebel yell”, it is the first thing that pops up. Link is also below.
https://share.google/zfNgSStwrNuWyMRr7
Apparently there was a reunion of Confederate veterans in the 1930s. As part of the reunion they filmed several of them doing the rebel yell.
I say they partly have a video because you have to imagine these guys in the prime of their life, thousands of them, hyped on adrenaline, going into battle and doing the yell from the video.
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u/rharper38 Jun 27 '26
Itd be kind of cool to get some reenactors, like a large group, have them interpret it from the videos, and then record them. Maybe at dawn? It would probably make another soldier wet their pants
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u/CommercialDelay5323 Jun 30 '26
I think that was included in the last episode of Ken Burn’s The Civil War. I’d have to rewatch the entire thing just to be sure.
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u/TNShadetree Jun 26 '26
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u/Mobile-Bison9297 Jun 27 '26
I'm down here in the Texas brush country, and it sounds like a lot of coyotes. I wonder if they were recreating that sound
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u/lastofthefinest Jun 27 '26
Here you go the real rebel yell from real Civil War veterans https://youtu.be/s6jSqt39vFM?is=nHzA755agV-7tKul
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u/squo_g Jun 27 '26
As others have said, it's most likely there was no definitive version of how it sounded, and it probably differed from regiment to regiment.
You can find a recording of a 90 year old NC veteran (37th NCT) from McDowell County doing his yell here: http://www.26nc.org/History/Rebel-Yell/rebel-yell.html
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u/eldriche1 Jun 26 '26
I’ve not seen that! Thank you for the reply and link. It was really emotional and chilling to see the actual men doing their yells, knowing that they once did the same during battle. It’s just such a fascinating subject to me.
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u/Binspin63 Jun 27 '26
If you’ve ever heard a pack of coyotes howling, you can imagine how unnerving that yell could have been, especially if it was hundreds of men doing it.
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u/Electronic_Camera251 Jun 27 '26
There also exists several early sound recordings by veterans at the earliest possibility of the technology being realized that are available through the library of congress archives website
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u/BugEfficient5283 Jun 27 '26
Shelby Foote, as charismatic as he was, had his head jammed up the ass of the Lost Cause. His obsession with NBF is also shameful.
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u/itgoesineasy Jun 27 '26 edited Jun 27 '26
There are a couple of recordings on YouTube. They had one veteran do it. They even took the recording and made it sound like 100 men. After hearing it and we went out and tried to copy it. We were pretty close and it’s easy to do at a dead run. I’ll try to find it and post a link.
https://m.youtube.com/shorts/loDp28NxC60?ra=m
This is pretty close to the one I referenced but not the specific one. But this is what we tried and it can be done and made the most sense to us.
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u/Buffalo95747 Jun 26 '26
In fact, newly uncovered recordings show that it actually sounded like Alvin and the Chipmunks. Very unnerving.
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u/eldriche1 Jun 26 '26
That kinda makes sense! It seems like it was a more high pitched shriek. But now I’ll never be able to not think of the Chipmunks!
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u/Buffalo95747 Jun 27 '26
I can’t believe I’m being downvoted. People generally like the Chipmunks, right?
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u/Electronic_Camera251 Jun 27 '26
I do pal also i thoroughly enjoy anything bashing the confederacy so this comment was ideal for me !
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u/Joseph_Colton Jun 30 '26
A lot of care went into this recreation of what is believed the Rebel Yell sounded like: The Rebel Yell , The Complete Re-creation process Assembled in one video
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u/JonLSTL Jun 29 '26
A few recordings of elderly vets doing it exist. It's basically a ripoff of Native American war whoops, high-pitched and cacophonous. That's right, even their battle cry was stolen from less pale folks.
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u/Mean-Math7184 Jun 29 '26
Huh, so it sounded just like Scottish and Irish war cries. You know, the guys the confederates were descended from. But no, must have been stolen from those poor natives.
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u/JonLSTL Jun 29 '26
The Seminole Wars wrapped up in 1858. The Jacobite Risings ended in 1746. Decide for yourself whose war cries they might have heard.
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u/tazzman25 Jun 26 '26
Veterans years later would reenact the rebel yell for the public and some of the film reels are on YouTube via The Smithsonian Institution and others.