Hear a genuine rebel yell - in safety

[Scot LaFaive]

I guess if I heard that in the woods of North Carolina at night, I might be
a little frightened. Then again, maybe behavior like this explains why they
lost the war. ;)



>From: Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Reply-To: American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>Subject: Hear a genuine rebel yell - in safety
>Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 18:18:49 -0800
>
>---------------------- Information from the mail header
>-----------------------
>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at YAHOO.COM>
>Subject:      Hear a genuine rebel yell - in safety
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Pvt. Thomas N. Alexander, CSA, formerly of the 26th North Carolina Infantry
>Regiment, was recorded yellin' at the age of 90 in 1935.  Hear it now:
>
>   http://www.26nc.org/History/RebelYell/main.htm
>
>   It's a yippin' kinda yell, maybe like them fice dogs folks have been
>postin' about.  It sure ain't no Yeeha(w) !
>
>   ProQuest reveals a mention in Jan., 1865, by a Yankee, who described the
>rebel yell as "dog-like."  Could be yippin', could be howlin'. Could be
>both.
>
>   I also found the less precise descriptors "wild," "blood-curdling,"
>"weird," and "unearthly."  Those are mostly from Yankee sources, by the
>way.
>
>   My wide-ranging but incomplete search found no *detailed* descriptions
>other than those Read adduced in 1961. One dubiously reliable source from
>1868 asserted that _the_ yell was picked up from the Cherokees of East
>Tennesse and first used by Americans at the Revolutionary battle of King's
>Mountain.  Another postbellum source, with marginally greater authority,
>claims it was used by Jefferson Davis's Mississippi volunteers at Monterey
>during the Mexican War.
>
>   JL
>
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