The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1905-01-06
THE ARMY YELL.
How the Soldiers Took Up the Cry
Units the Whole Army Was
Involved.

It is hardly necessary to explain, and
| could not do it if l wanted to, how
the simple matter of yelling or halloo-
ing grew to be of such gigantic proper
lions and with what wonderful rapidity
these simple things spread. Start rab
bit, and one yell meant a yell from
everyone in the regiment, and that
meant a brigade yell, and so on, until
the whole army rapidly took up the con-
tagion. Soldiers never stopped to in
quire what it meant; they didn't care;
they heard the yell far away, faint at
first, gradually swelling toward them
until, like a huge wave, a terrific
cyclone, it swept past to die away in
the far-away TANKS of the army.
During the spring of 1864, when we
were retiring from the Knoxville cam
paign to our position near Chattanoo-
ga. an old friend of mine of the
Eighty-sixth Indiana passed me, and l
merely remarked: How are you,
Tom?" That was followed by How are
you, Tom from the balance of the
company, then by the regiment. The
brigade and division took it up, and
probably before that How are you,
Tom" died away two-thirds of Thomas
old third division had paid that courtesy
to Tom.
But the grandest and most enthusiast
tic yelling | ever heard was when the
army lay around Atlanta after it's cap
ture Away toward Atlanta we heard the
p1ncor ~,
stinctively it seemed that the soldiers
knew something of unusual Importance
had occurred. and they yelled louder and
with great spirit. 1t was probably an
hour thereafter that news from Sher-
mans headquarters reached us of Sheri-
dams splendid victories in the Shenan-
doah.
Toward nightfall. or even when very
dark, whilst weary and foot sore from
tedious marching, yell coming along
the road from toward the front meant
going into camp ahead, but how far
ahead depended whether you were very
far in the rear Of the army or not. IL
you were, you were probably consider
able distance from camp.
Whilst the picket lines were within
less than hundred yards of each other
before Atlanta, in July, 1864, our pickets,
| By way Of demonstration, were required
| to make almost daily charges upon the
rifle pts of the enemy. Sometimes we
captured several prisoners, and usually
held the rife pts until the reserves
drove us out again. During these
charges, of couiSe, the usual yell accom-
] uanied. One day the spasmodic and un-
accountable arrQy yell was r..salag
arouno ana, oi course, was taken up
by the picisets. pe rebt. pickets. think
ing it meant the daily charge. pulled
out and ran for the works behind. See
ing that they had been victims of
huge joke, one ~ one you could see
them slipping baeS INTO their hole and
f@st ! hostile p1sltions. This picket
yelhas was reduced to consider bIs
systeu ~ the piGRets themselves
IEsnember hat the day Of the Peach
! Tree ereek bale CIR dlvlsioa wa away
eta e th Eft, snd a. 6afof4suu-
Gd'"W 9t''pickers peeessrfife ff,5rirFsa.v aged
and afteN seeing they were in for it for
awhile they began firing with a seeming
preconcerted action from the left, and
as the last one fired to the right Won
could hear simultaneous veil then tho
hrlns by file again, and so on until dark.
Hundreds of incidents of the army wells
might be given. but they are too famil-
lar to be of interest-C. A. Brasher in
American Tribune.