The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-07-25
THE HUMAN VOICE IN BATTLE.
OF Little Use Except i'm Giving tho
Cheer That Accompanies the Charge.
IIor+fo~,l cVo,.~oot


Hartford Courant.
The human voice in battle has peculiar,
a precise value. That value does not lie in
the giving of orders 1t requires no great
mental strain to understand that in the heat
of an engagement the guns do all the talk
ing that's audible. The youthful author or
The Red Badge of Courage represented a
corporal conversing freely with comrade
at least thirty feet away in line that was
repelling a fierce Confederate onslaught.
Anyone who has spent Fourth of July In
an American city can appreciate the absurd
ity of that, and anyone who has ever stood
in line of soldiers firing knows that after
the first shock to the tympanum he seems
to hear nothing whatever-the individual
discharges are wholly indistingulshable to
him, and his captain close behind him might
screech his throat out and yet make no inn
preston Then as the smoke settles back
there is an almost overpowering sense OF
isolation. You don't realize your inability
thought you find simply a vague idea that
the atmosphere is most dense and oppreS-
sive, that you are sort of shut in by some
impenetrable substance which you can
neither see nor feel National Guardsmen
who have been in firing drills will remember
With the modern rapid-firing guns there's
little firing by men in mass except when the
company "rallies" to repel an attack. Then
a circle or semi-circle is formed around the
officers and the bullets are sent in every d.
rection fast as they can travel. In the
EXTENDED order on the skirmish line 1t lS
possible for man to hear himself think,
but with a line extending rods away to the
right and left, and with a strong wind blow
officers voice cannot be equal to the emer-
gency. So he resorts to signalS-vlsuai,
with his sword, when smoke and landscape
will allow: otherwise with the bugle, or
with a hoarse whistle in the hilt of his
sword. Properly drilled soldiers of 1898 read
lily interpret the signals. Those with the
sword are simple; those by bugle or whistle
are combinations Of long and short blasts,
as, for example: One long one, Halt, Two V9
one long one "'To the reari" Two long ones
ard two short ones, Commerce firingI
One long one and two short ones, Cease
firing!' The noncommissioned officers along
the line, hearing these signals, repeat the
Aboard ship there also is great economy
of vocal power. If the steel sides of the ves-
sci are not being pounded by shot ana snell
tween shots, but their words are few. AS
for the men, the experience of an observer
aboard one OF our vessels at the destTuctionl
he expected to hear the men rush TO quar-
tiers with yell and then cheer as they saw
the enemys discontinue. On the contrary
the only sound the boom of the guns,
the men going on with their work like silent
Yet the human voice has it's value, Who
shall say that 1t is any less than those from
metal threats? 1t comes when there's lull
in the firing, when bayonets are hxed, Wnen
men nerve themselves and start forward az
a run over the short but shot-sWept space
between them and the enemy Then the
voice will make itself heard-no rules or
regulations ever could prevent 1t II they
tried Seemingly it is the shout that carries
the men onward, upward, over the breast
We heard considerable about the differen-
tiation between the Southern cry and the
Northern cheer during the civil war. The
former was a high-keyed, piercing yell, the
latter q deeper-chested "hurrah. leaving
out of the word all but the vowel SOUND.
How do thew sound now blended? Ameri-
ca foemen will never stop to tell