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

It is hardly necessary to explain, and
I could not do it if l wanted to, how
the simple matter of yelling or halloo-
ing grew to be of such gigantic proper
tions and with what wonderful rapidity
these simple things spread. Start rab-
bit, and one yell meant yell from
everyone in the regiment, and that
meant 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
paisn to our position near Chattanoo-
ga, an old friend of mine Of the
Eighty-sixth Indiana passed me, and I
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 l ever heard was when the
army lay around Atlanta after it's cap
ture. Away toward Atlanta we heard the
yell coming closer and louder, and in
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, a 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. If
you were, you were probably a consider
able distance from camp.
|
. less than hundred yards of each other
before Atlanta, in July, 1864, our pickets,
bT way of demonstration, were required
I to make almost daily charges upon the
rife pits of the enemy. Sometimes we
captured several prisoners, and usually
held the rife pits until the reserves
drove us out again. During these
charges, of course, the usual yell accom-.
j uanied. One day the spasmodic and un.
i aecounsabls arTQy yell was. Esassing
y aronno and, Of course, was taken uI
ee by the piciSets. pe reht. pick & t.. thiyk-
ing it meant the daily charge. pulled
tie out and ran for the works behind. See
le ing that they had been victims of .
i'd huge joke, one BY one you could see
ne them slipping back into their holes and
rrssse Z hostile Dositions This picket
er yelhas was reduced to a considerable
ar system by the pigkets themselves.
Ire7pember hat the day sf the Peach
d Tree creek haf lie RI a ssiss wa away
CT. d shs eft. aud fl 5afof Il sua,.
7 dt~Hp Ttapicketss ocean ;rsv aged,
and afteN seeing they were in for it for
awhile they began firing with seeming
preconcerted action from the left, and
as the last one fired to the right YOU
} could hear a simultaneous yell, then the
firing by file again, and so on until dark.
Hundreds of incidents of the army yells
might be given. but they are too famil-
lar to be of interest-C. A. Brasher, in
American Tribune.