The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1905-02-23
THE ARMY YELL.
How the Soldiers Took Up the CRY
Until the Whole Army Was
involved.

It Ia hardly necessary to explain. ano
could not do 1t il l wanted 10, 10"
the simple matter of yelling or halloo-
ing grew to be of such glgahtlc propol'
lions and with what wonderful raplo1ty
these simple things spread. Start RAD
bit, and one yell meant yell from
everyone in the regiment, and tna'
meant a brigade yell, and so on, untll
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, rant ~
first, gradually swelling toward them
until, like huge wave, q terrific
cyclone, it swept past to die away In
the far-away TANKS of the army
During the spring Of 1854, when we
were retiring from the Knoxville cam
paign to our position near Chattanoo
ga, an old friend of mine OF tne
Eighty-sixth Indiana passed me. and
merely remarked: How are you
Tom7" 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, ano
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 its 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. It was probably an
hour thereafter that news from Sher-
mans headquarters reached us of Sheri-
dams splendid victories in the Shenan-
doah.
Toward nightfaH, 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. II
you were, you were probably a consider.
able distance from camp.
Whilst the picket lines were within
less than hundred yards of each othel
before Atlanta, in July, 1864, our pickets
by way Of demonstration, were required
to make almost daily charges upon thu
rifle pits of the enemy. Sometimes We
captured several prisoners, and usually
held the rifle pits until the reserves
drove us out again. During these
charges, Of course, the usual yell accom-.
panied. One day the spasmodic and un
accountable army yell was passing
around, and, Of course, was taken III
by the pfckets. The rebel pickets, think.
ing it meant the daily charge, pulled
out and ran for the works behind See
ing that they had been victims of 6
huge joke, one by one you could SCI
them slipping back into their holes and
resumfng hostile positions. This pickle
yelling was reduced to a considerabl,
system by the pickets themselves.
remember that the day of the Peacl
Tree Creek battle our division was ava,
around to the left, and just before sun
down our pickets became holly engaged
and after seeing they were in for it To-
awhile they began firing with seem1n,
preconcerted action from the left. AMI
as the last one fired to the right 70,
could hear simultaneous yell, then tn,
firing by file again, and so on until dark
| Hundreds of incidents of the army WE'LL
might be given, but they are too famil
lar to be of interest-C. A. Brasher I,
American Tribune.