Of all the sounds now vanished from the heart of old downtown Los Angeles — the songs of the Tongva, the whistles of steam locomotives, the clanging of streetcars — there’s one you’d never have expected: the Rebel Yell. The battle cry of the Confederacy resounded a long way from its home, but throughout the Civil War, you could hear it in secessionist hangouts like the old Bella Union Hotel. The yell usually went along with hollering and arguing, and maybe the bibulous singing of “We’ll Hang Abe... Read this story
