| No one alive has heard it.
We can't even be certain what it sounds like. There are
different version of it described. And maybe different parts of
the South had different rebel yells. We don't know.
Half hog call, half shout, born of fear and courage. The war shout of
a farmer and hunter, the cry of a people used to calling out over a long
distance.
J. Harvie Dew of the 9th Virginia Cavalry described the Rebel yell
given by his Cavalry unit in battle like this:
"Woh-who-ey! Who-ey! Who-ey! Woh who-ey! Who-ey! (The best
illustration of this 'true yell' which can be given the reader is by
spelling it as above, with directions to sounds the first syllable 'woh'
short and low, and the second 'who' with a very high and prolonged not
deflecting upon the third syllable 'ey.'"
When did the last Rebel yell sound?
Did its notes fade away at Petersburg? Sayler's Creek?
Appomattox?
Veterans at reunions used to give the Rebel yell, and former soldiers
who served under Lee paid their respects when they saw him by calling
out the Rebel yell.
In time Lee died; the soldiers grew old, and grayer. Feeble,
even, and at one reunion the story is told that an aged veteran declined
to give the Rebel yell, saying that it couldn't really be duplicated
outside of combat, anyway.
And now the final Rebel yell has faded away.
I've stood in the fading twilight in the silence of Appomattox and
heard nothing. I stood in knee deep grass in the afternoon heat at Fort
Gregg, and heard only the cars on Route 83. I stood at Chancellorsville,
where Jackson's men surged forward with a Rebel yell thousands strong,
and heard only the dry wind on tame fields.
In hundreds of places on dozens of battlefields, I have heard
nothing.
And now I walk at night.
I walk under dark Virginia skies, where rebels used to walk.
Lee's Petersburg headquarters is simply down the street. The
Crater lies a mile away, Fort Stedman scarcely more than that.
I've walked on warm nights in a simple shirt, on cold nights with
three sweaters on. In the rain, on the phone, restless, and at
peace.
Late at night, in small town Virginia, under stars that haven't
changed since the final battles, I walk.
Waiting for God to give me an echo.
|
