Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-06-03

Then ever followed the query, "What was
this rebel yell? What was it like? 2"
No one has yet heard a satisfactory or
at all descriptive answer. The concur
renee Of reply is that it vas a fierce,
thrilling, sustained shrek, that welled
up from mems hearts to their threats,
under the nervous strain of the charge;
that it was like nothing heard before or
since, and that its effect was often blood
curdling to men who stood the hail Of
shot and the CLINT of steel with never a
tremor of eyelid. But that it beggared
description is proved in the absolute alb
sence, to this day, Of IN successful at
tempt either by writer or orator, to give
ms audience a faint conception of what
this spontaneous but uncanny cry really
was.
Almost as these lines were written the
subject was discussed with a veteran
major general who captured his first flag
at Chapultepec and left a leg upon a
field of inter-fraternal strife. This old
hero is not only a Bayard, but a philoso-
pher and a student of men as well. He
has a theory that, leaving aside cause of
originating sentiment and clan, the rebel
yell was produced by peculiar nervous
construction of southern men, upon
threats differently formed from those
or yelling northern masses. aided by eli
mate n atmospheric causes. The foun-
NH> - ~ N"SoAy 1S II NoSdl
differences of the Carolinian, Louisian-
ian and Georgian, and the men or the
north, east and northwest. But it's refu-
tation is in a fact. for the border troops,
M~arylanders, Missourians and kentuck-
ians speak differently from those named.
Yet the hard-tighting boys of Prices
western army curdled the whiskers of
the treetops with this same yell, and the
Maryland line sent it echoing back to
them from the Potomac.
So. as its origin is shrouded in mystery,
must the TRANCE war cry of the south
remain undescribed. The future his
torlan will describe it, and its resulting
effect, quite as glibly as the present ones
are doing. and with as little truth to ma
ture. For. as seeing is believing" so,
most ~emphatically in this case, is hear
ing, and only hearing. understanding.
sometimes at confederate veterans re-
unions an attempt is made to reproduce
the real, Slmon-pure rebel yell, but,
strange as it may seem, the very men
who made it and used it to such advan-
tage for four long and trying years only
reproduce something like it. This fact
would seem to show that the real distil-
latlon of pluck, nervousness and fury
can only be performed under glowing
heat of the real charge.
There is nc shade of doubt in the mind
Of any living Johnnie Reb' that, could
1T have been "embalmed" and transport
ed to General Shafter, a good, genuine,
old-time rebel yell would have lone more
real service in Cuba than all the million
subsidized 'insurgent" rifles ever did.
But there was the rub, for Wheeler and
Fitz Lee could not nave taught it, even
in their own practical singing schools. Sc
the war had to be ended with the crack
of the Krag-Jorgensens and the diapason
of hearty, deep-chested American hur-
rahs..
But the query as to what that other
wal cry is has yet had no satisfying an
swers. Could the most cunning brush
catch and hold sound, the 'rebel yell"
might be reproduced for this generation.
AS it cannot, the famous old war cry
must go down the ages as a name-and
an almost meaningless name only. 1t
never has been, it never will be, Adequate