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Listen to the Chilling Sound of the Confederate War Cry
Smithsonian Magazine via YouTube
When you think about the Civil War, you're probably picturing it as a slideshow of violence, racism, and terrifying tin-print photographs of severe-looking people who were apparently born without any bones in the lower half of their faces. We don't, for instance, know what the war sounded like, since it was fought in an era when television would have been considered witchcraft. That means you'll never know what it was like to hear the infamous Rebel Yell, the terrifying battle cry of the Confederates.
But some digging into the archives from the early days of radio and television turned up actual Civil War vets doing the cry, for old time's sake. This site has an audio embed of an old-timer (who, again, lived to fight against Abraham Lincoln's government) howling like a madman. Meanwhile, the Smithsonian turned up actual TV footage of a bunch of old Confederates doing the same:
Realizing that the men who fought on the losing side of the nation's most divisive conflict would soon be crumbling away into dust and would not be favored well by the history books, 1930s documentarians had decided to gather the veterans for one last hurrah, and to record some of their peculiar rituals. The battle shout of the Confederate Army has been described as "a sort of fox-hunt yip mixed up with a sort of banshee squall." We'd say it sounds more like an entire shelter of stray dogs being simultaneously euthanized, but what else would you expect from the rabid holler of a group of ancient men reenacting the sound they made while fighting for their right to get rich off of free labor.
Smithsonian Magazine via YouTube
"OK, next show is in the midnight hour, and I want to hear more! More! More!"
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