Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Rebel Yell

Waite Rawls: This project started with a conversation with a reenactor who was talking about the actual sound of the Rebel yell. He had found a copy of a man being recorded in Charlotte, NC and that rebel yell didn't sound like anything you or I have ever heard of.

WBT recording “Now here is one confederate veteran's rebel yell: Sound of yell

WR: After a year of searching for any other recording we found the veteran in California making the sound for an MGM movie. It was on an old wax disc. And we said - lets take it to a modern sound studio and
see what this man sounds like.

UDC Recording: “This is an authentic record of the rebel yell. It is recorded by one of the last survivors of General Stuart's command, S.S. Simmons: Sound of yell

WR: You know all of us grew up thinking that the rebel yell sounded like “Yee Haw” or “Woo woo” or something like that. But that's not what you read about. When you read the diaries and letters, they say it sounds like dogs or foxes or yipping or barking and they also say it sounds like a horrible shrieking noise. ”Yee Haw” does not sound horrible and its not a shriek. So the big gap are what are the words trying to describe versus what did the sound really sound like?

If you hear one person doing it, it doesn't accord with what you thinkl, it doesn't make sense, and you say that could not be the rebel yell. Its only when you hear the multiple voices. I can imagine that
MGM that did one of the recordings and WBT Radio in Charlotte which did the other recording, made limited use of their recordings because it was only one voice and it did not make sense to what they thought.
So it was the use of modern technology and then the replication using tens or hundreds of voices that gives its real definition.

Sound of 70 rebel soldiers

Some people have said it sounds like murder or someone being killed. Two of the quotes that we use on the cd refer to exactly that. One of the quotes is in the poem written by a Northern soldier and another
quote is from one of the Confederates talking about it. One of the great quotes is it sounds like death is very near. 4 I think that the mental picture thats painted through your ears is an appropriate
mental picture. It is a war shriek. It is not to be done in casual company. I think that's one of the reasons that the Confederate soldiers got such an adrenaline rush out of it. I think thats one of
the reasons the Northern soldiers reacted with fear and trepidation when they heard it is is is the very sound is terrifying.

Sound: Rebel Yell

Tag: Waite Rawls, President and CEO of the Museum of the Confederacy. He spoke with Peter Solomon for VFH radio. The cd “The Rebel Yell Lives” is available through the Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond.