The rebel yell and northern cheer

There's a lot of history and 'lore' behind bourbon so discuss both here.

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The rebel yell and northern cheer

Unread postby gillmang » Fri Apr 19, 2013 3:23 pm

For many years I have observed on the shelves the well-known bourbon called Rebel Yell. I buy it once in a while, finding it rather thin and inoffensive, not as good as in the 70's when it was made by S-W. I always wondered what the term referred to. I just assumed it was a southern term used to indicate regional pride. There is also the well-known rock song of the same name but I never really understood the lyrics or gave them much account.

Anyway the other day when checking something about S-W that brand was mentioned so just for the heck of it I googled the name. Some old 1800's references came up stating that this was a battle cry of Confederate soldiers, which I never knew. Not just that, but there was a kind of Union equivalent, called the northern cheer. One source claimed the rebel yell was a high-pitched elongated vocalization of the "hur" part of "hurrah" which had not just Anglo-Saxon origins but even older. The same source said the northern cheer was a shout that stressed more the second syllable of hurrah, the rah, which had a deep booming sound, and that often massed troops hurled out the yell and cheer at each other. Further googling produced early 1900's films with sound on youtube that showed very aged Confederate veterans performing their yell en masse for the camera. It was not a little unsettling to hear this, there was something old-fashioned and rather primal about it. I didn't look for clips of Union vets doing their cheer but maybe there is film of that too.

It is really wonderful how the Internet enables growth of personal knowledge, just through this means alone you can check a thousand and million things which in the old days could never have been known by the average person. To me Rebel Yell was just a brand of bourbon but I see now what the term originally meant and how it was used in times past.

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Re: The rebel yell and northern cheer

Unread postby EllenJ » Sat Apr 20, 2013 6:51 pm

You're right about the derivation of the term. Like Scottish bagpipes and Zulu chants (or playing tapes of the Flight of the Valkaries from helecopters in Vietnam), the mere sound of the approaching noise struck fear and dread into the hearts of their opponents.

As for the bourbon brand, it was originally a marketing scheme attributed to Charles Farnsworth, one-time mayor of Louisville and a partner in the Stitzel-Weller organization. The idea was to distribute the brand only in the Southern states, and to center it's brand persona on that fact, using Southern regional pride to boost sales. Later on, it's market area was widened to include Northern states, but apparently the plan didn't work quite as well as anticipated; Mike Veach includes its failure to take off as a significant factor in the 1980s' industry-wide collapse due to over-production. When Diageo sold off their bourbon brands along with the Bernheim distillery, Rebel Yell was purchased by David Sherman (now Luxco), which has recently begun spending more on advertising the brand.

While the exuberent young lady referred to in the song by Billy Idol is certainly calling for more, more, more of SOMETHING, I have a feeling that it isn't fine bourbon whiskey. At least not exactly. :wink:
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Re: The rebel yell and northern cheer

Unread postby bourbonv » Mon Apr 22, 2013 9:02 am

Eh, who is Charles Farnsworth? Maybe you mean Charlie Farnsley, the nephew of Alex T. Farnsley, one of the partners in Stitzel-Weller.
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Re: The rebel yell and northern cheer

Unread postby Squire » Mon Apr 22, 2013 12:57 pm

The Rebel Yell is derived from the ancient Celtic battle cry. In Ken Burns series The Civil War one of the narrators, the Southern historian Shelby Foote, gives a scholarly and amusing description of the Rebel Yell.
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Re: The rebel yell and northern cheer

Unread postby EllenJ » Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:12 pm

bourbonv wrote:Eh, who is Charles Farnsworth? Maybe you mean Charlie Farnsley, the nephew of Alex T. Farnsley, one of the partners in Stitzel-Weller.

Uh, yeah. Dat's da ticket! :oops:
Oh well, I'm sure Mr. Farnsworth, whoever he may have been, enjoyed a glass of fine bourbon now and then. :roll:
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Re: The rebel yell and northern cheer

Unread postby gillmang » Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:30 pm

Thanks gents, and didn't know about Ken Burn's reference to the Rebel Yell although I've certainly heard of Shelby Foote.

Here is one of the clips of Confederate veterans doing the yell, I find it kind of extraordinary and chilling at the same time, this evocation of (one aspect of) 1860's America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6jSqt39vFM

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