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How many people can say they have heard an authentic Rebel Yell? To our knowledge this is the only surviving example of the Rebel Yell given by one of the 140,000 Tar Heels who defended the state of North Carolina. We encourage you to listen to this voice from the past, read the see information below to learn of the man behind the voice and how this audio treasure came to be recorded for posterity. ==========================================The audio files accompanying this page were recorded by the general manager of WBT radio at a Sons of Confederate Veterans meeting in 1935 when Alexander was 90 years old. The interviewer spends several minutes with Alexander asking for the history of the Rebel Yell. Alexander, whose age makes it hard to understand him, replies that he first heard the yell at "Cold Harbor", apparently meaning the 1862 Seven Days Battle of Gaines Mill, which was sometimes called First Cold Harbor, which was his first battle. Alexander then says whenever the Yankees heard the Rebel Yell, "they would fly," meaning run away. The interviewer then asks all of the veterans in attendance to give the yell. They give several, controlled monosyllabic calls. Apparently, at some point later in the meeting, perhaps in a more private room as the sound quality seems to improve, the interviewer asks Alexander to give his own version of the yell.
What a great find, this one goes in the stickys!
It is not what I expected at all. It almost sounds like a coyote howl. I wonder if it was copied from some Native American yell?
