Pup
Philosopher
- Joined
- Dec 21, 2004
- Messages
- 6,679
As far as I'm aware, nobody knows what that actually sounded like.
Well, "nobody knows" is one of those phrases that can be interpreted several ways. Obviously, nobody knows exactly what it sounded like unless they heard a Confederate soldier yell during the war, so in that sense, it's true that nobody knows.
But there's been a fair amount of scholarship on the topic that has provided what I think are reasonable estimations, based on period descriptions, the larger context of cries used when hunting with dogs, as well as some recordings of actual veterans giving the yell, when sound recordings came into existence. In that sense, I'd say historians are fairly far from just tossing up their hands and saying, "nobody knows."
A couple of discussions on the topic, with links to recordings:
http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?28111-The-Rebel-Yell
http://www.authentic-campaigner.com/forum/showthread.php?3986-Rebel-Yell-Recordings
Short answer: like TX50 says, it wasn't "yeeee-haw!"