A Word about History

For many of us, elementary school history told us Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas. Of course we now know several Europeans had visited our shores before 1492. The Declaration of Independence was not signed on July 4, 1776, but only approved by the second Continental Congress on that date. The signing happened two months later on August 2. French emperor Napoleon has always been portrayed as a short man – not so. The historical record shows he was five feet, two inches – in French feet. That converts to five feet seven inches in our measurements, a little above average in those days. And of course, we have the George Washington myths about his wooden false teeth which were made of a variety of materials, but not wood and the chopping down of the cherry tree. Then there is the massive myths surrounding the origins of Thanks giving (see my November, 2014 article).

Historical research is a tricky thing. It is entirely possible for a seemingly minor mistake to lead entire groups of people astray. Or, in some case for a completely made up story to take on the veil of truth.

One such mistake has been perpetrated for decades, causing thousands to unknowingly mislead the public literally every day. For twenty years I have been a Civil War reenactor and historical interpreter. For all of those years at events and programs I have heard reenactors and interpreters shouting ‘huzzah.’ It always sounded odd to me, but I just figured it was one of those archaic words that are a part of reenacting a historical time period. And then, a few years ago I came across information that justified my discomfort for the word.

Today’s Miriam Webster’s dictionary defines the word huzzah as a noun that means, “An expression or shout of acclaim —often used interjectionally to express joy or approbation.” This definition is consistent with all known definitions of the word dating back to 18^th century dictionaries. What is significant here is that the word is a noun. Conversely, if we examine the word ‘hurrah’ we find that, along with being a noun, it is also listed as an exclamation. Nowhere do we find the term huzzah listed as other than a noun or verb. So, we can think of huzzah as equal to the words cheer and shout. We gave a mighty cheer/shout/huzzah. We marched in the street cheering/shouting/huzzahing. Common sense tells us that does not mean the cited people went about exclaiming ‘cheer!’ or ‘shout!’ The same holds true for huzzah. Rather, they are generic terms for the act of cheering, huzzahing or shouting. Not that a huzzah should be translated only to a hoorah. Huzzah should be interpreted the same as cheer and shout and could have been any number of exclamations.

Add to this evidence the writing of both citizens and soldiers in the mid nineteenth century and the case seems clear. In these letters and diaries, the authors consistently write thus, “we gave a hearty huzzah,” or “huzzahs were heard throughout the camp.” Replace huzzah with the word cheer in these phrases and you can easily see the intent of the writer.

Is it really that important whether folks shout huzzah or hoorah or whatever? Maybe not, but it is an excellent example of how easy it is to make a mistake when looking into the past. That mistake can become so accepted as to become unquestioned fact. And that is the danger of not getting history correct. If such an unimportant thing as the word huzzah can be so terribly misinterpreted by accident, how much more so is it likely that historical facts can be distorted when there is something to gain?