The Lost Symphony of the Lost Cause

By S. Craig Taylor, Jr.
April 20, 2005

We just returned from The COLD WARS convention in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and I will describe some of our impressions and adventures there later in this column. In the meantime, as Jeff downloads the convention pictures, I must look busy at this keyboard, and so will enlighten you with a history tidbit. A long, long time ago, in the salad days of 1987 to be exact, I submitted a short historical article to THE COURIER, which was billed as “North America’s Foremost Miniature Gaming Magazine”. As THE COURIER, a very long-running historical miniatures magazine based in New England has recently ceased publication, I thought I would take this opportunity to update the article and keep my deathless prose available by posting it here. It has been far too long since I last made you suffer through one of my history lessons (see Publisher’s Corners “A Tale of Two Dictators, Parts One and Two ” for the previous transgression).

It was loud. It was frightening. It was one of the most legendary sounds ever produced by the human throat. Caesar’s legions may have heard it during their campaigns in Gaul around 50 B. C., English knights mentioned hearing something similar when Robert the Bruce and his Scots charged at Bannockburn in 1314 and there are accounts of high-pitched shouts when the wild Tennessee frontiersmen attacked their hated Tory neighbors at King’s Mountain in 1780. Others say, more prosaically, that it was taken from the plaintive cry of a lovesick wolf or was first heard when a clumsy gunner dropped a cannonball on his foot. By now, my usual rambling writing style probably has you leaping up in your seats and saying, “What is that old fool talking about?” and “This doesn’t look like an article about Becky and her tire.” Take a gander at the Publisher’s Corner “By the Twitching on My Thumbs, Something Weird This Way Comes” if you want tire stories. What we are discussing now is, of course, the possible lineage of the “Rebel Yell” of the American Civil War (also known as “The War Between the States”, “The War of Yankee Aggression” and “THE WAR, Suh!” below the Mason-Dixon Line). Since gamers who command the Gray in various war games have been known to produce the most unusual noises (really!) in the midst of such contests, it seems appropriate to include a short study of this important subject.

Although there were cranky old spoilsports who claimed that they never heard it on many a stricken field, those unpleasant codgers may have once been young shirkers and malingerers who actually missed most of the fun and high times in our nation’s premier bloodletting. The “Rebel Yell” is reliably reported as being used not only during the war years but on numerous occasions after the “Late Unpleasantness”—the James and Younger boys are reputed to have used it while hightailing it out of town after their bank robberies, cowboys on a spree would raise the roofs of Abilene and Dodge City and “Fighting Joe” Wheeler, a former Confederate general, may have given the cry while leading his cavalry division in Cuba in 1898 (Wheeler was thoroughly confused and kept referring to the Spanish as “damnyankees”). More commonly, any social gathering of former Johnny Rebs could be counted on to let loose after a few cold ones. In short, the “Rebel Yell” was such a fine old Southern tradition during the latter part of the Nineteenth Century that no one gave it a second thought. Unfortunately, time passed and, despite the popular caricature about not doing so, people did start to forget….

At both the 50th and 75th anniversary reunions and encampments at Gettysburg in 1913 and 1938, eager young reporters pressed white-bearded former Confederate high privates to give their expert massed rendition of the legendary howl but ancient lungs were not up to the effort, as even the disappointed old soldiers admitted after a few unsuccessful tries. They reflected that it was really a young man’s cry, best given at a full run with the head thrown back and the mouth wide open and the old resonance was, sadly, long gone. Union vets admitted that the shriek was “chilling” and “unforgettable” but they could not reproduce it and so eventually took their memories with them to the grave.

Finally, in 1949, Frank Tolbert, the Texas historian, sought out the illusive sound in interviews with the last four surviving Texas veterans. The first three were no help but 103 year old Merrill Raney was more enlightening. While yarning about his part in the Battle of Murfreesboro, the old soldier grew more and more intense as he slipped back into his long-departed youth, describing with great emotion the shooting, the acrid smoke, the surging battle flags and battlelines, the screams of the wounded and dying and, finally, his unit’s charge. At this point, the feeble old gentleman suddenly reared back and produced a sound that Tolbert described as “…like an opera singer hitting almost impossible high notes…as if a mountain lion and a coyote were crying in chorus.” Delighted, Tolbert got his new-fangled tape recorder (cutting-edge technology in 1949) to record an authentic “Rebel Yell” for posterity but discovered that the machine was useless as the old farmhouse had no electricity. The disappointed historian left, promising to return later with a battery hookup for the tape recorder. When he returned a few days later, Tolbert was met by Raney’s son who sorrowfully informed him that his father had died in the interim.

Tolbert’s was the last attempt to save this exquisite bit of American history as the last few Civil War veterans passed on to their final reward in the 1950s. What is often described as a “Rebel Yell” can still split the air at rowdy football games throughout Dixie and Confederate re-enactors can emit screeches that stop cows from giving milk for miles around but, unless we consider it to be an inherited characteristic, like the Hapsburg lip, there is no way to check the noisy ones’ bona fides. There is no “gold standard” for comparison. The original “Rebel Yell” is lost to the memory of man and no one living today can say with certainty exactly how it sounded.

Well, wasn’t that a nice, if somewhat noisy, interlude? Jeff just informed me his computer is now stuffed with the electronic images that have replaced the negatives that I used to develop as a hobby in my callow youth (another basic skill falls by the wayside), so it is now time to move on to reporting on the COLD WARS 2005 Miniatures Convention. In addition to the usual socializing with old friends, talking to customers, sleeping in strange beds and eating motel food, we actually officiated at some events. Jeff ran our usual Demonstration Table on Friday and Saturday, repeatedly teaching COMBAT SOLDIERS in the Battle of the Bulge (see the Publisher’s Corner “Triple Play” for a description and BATTLEGROUP (see the Publisher’s Corner “Busy, Busy, Busy” for a description) until his tongue felt like the Russian Army had marched through his mouth in their stocking feet. He was happy to swap with me so that I could glibly blab my way through a BATTLEGROUP demo while he ran my fifth and last SERGEANTS!—In Miniature event on Saturday night.

Jeff accused me of being too laid back in my earlier games as I still had the wreckage of a voice box left. The SERGEANTS!—In Miniature event was played on our Lost Battalion Games Terrain Tiles (using a blown-up version of Mapboard 7 and Scenario 33, which were posted online in early March), overlaid with miniature 3-D terrain and using MiniFigs 12mm figures mounted on bases that are oversize unit counters (see the last Publisher’s Corner “Soldiering On” for descriptions of these and other new products). The game plays exactly like the board game but is larger, prettier and easier for passersby to see. We had four to six players in every round and most seemed impressed that new players could be taught the game and play it to a conclusion in less than two hours. Of course, experienced professionals like moi can do that in less than one hour. This was an actual event where we awarded certificates and special t-shirts to the winners and all but three of the participants had never played the game before. Bill Frye ran his usual excellent PANZER® in Miniature events and we awarded the usual certificates and, as lovely parting gifts, attractive t-shirts to the winners. And, oh yeah, we also introduced SERGEANTS!—In the Sand at COLD WARS, taking that board game system where no man has gone before, to the Western Desert in World War II.

As near as I can tell, after over ten years of attending conventions in Lancaster, everybody in town eats out on the weekends and it is well-nigh impossible to get a meal on Friday or Saturday night without a substantial wait. Friday night, famished from a hard day of selling our appealing product line, Debbie and Becky went out to dinner, passed over the usual line-around-the-block places, motored far into the boondocks and stumbled onto an unusual restaurant that, instead of individual tables, features huge, long tables where groups of hungry patrons are assigned to sit wherever they can squeeze in. Anyone who has ever been in the military or in prison knows how this works. A bunch of us went there many years ago and I really did not care for the dining experience. I’m not much for pleasant dining conversation even with people I know, let alone complete strangers who eat their peas with knives. If this were a game, it would be of the mass multiplayer variety. Apparently, our two women alone liked the experience even less, although I tend to suspect that Becky’s account of being joined at their table by what appeared to be the eastern chapter of the Manson Family to be a bit of an exaggeration. Let’s just say that none of us will be repeat customers there, although we will be back to Lancaster!