Angels Glow During the Battle of Shiloh
Written by Alexis Hargis
On April 6, 1862, Union and Confederate soldiers clashed in the small county of Hardin, Tennessee. Over the course of two days, the soldiers engaged in one of the bloodiest battles of the American Civil War up to that point, with over 23,000 casualties. For several days, many soldiers were left in cold and rainy weather conditions without adequate staffing for medical care, and although they should have succumbed to the extreme conditions, some of them managed to survive. Many survivors were affected by an intriguing phenomenon known as Angel’s Glow.
During the night, the lesions of wounded soldiers shone a light blueish-green hue, and it seemed those who glowed remained alive longer, earning the term “Angel’s Glow” because soldiers believed it was miraculous healing caused by angels. Despite its supernatural appearance, Angel's Glow has a scientific explanation. In 2001, two high school students and Phyllis Martin, a microbiologist with a specialty in bioluminescent bacteria, discovered what likely happened on those two fateful nights.
Phyllis Martin’s son, Bill, a self-proclaimed “Civil War enthusiast,” together with his friend Johnathan Curtis, were fascinated by the unexplained occurrence. After much research, the boys discovered that Photorhabdus luminescens is a probable cause of the glow. P. luminescens is a bacterium living in parasitic worms, also known as nematodes, which kill other bacteria for food and space. Nematodes kill their opponents by vomiting P. luminescens, as opposed to using manufactured weapons like their hosts. Even though it sounds disgusting, the upheaval destroys any chance of more threatening bacteria thriving in the soldiers’ wounds. This enabled them to lay on the battlefield for days without contracting a lethal infection, only a pleasant glow.
The work of Martin and Curtis was a remarkable discovery for the fields of science and history, but their hypotheses raised a problem: P. luminescens cannot thrive in the human body because the average body temperature is too high. However, Phyllis Martin had the perfect response to such a contradiction. “The bacteria [P. luminescens] don’t grow at human body temperature. This had to happen at a particular time when it was cold enough that the body temperature would be lowered by hypothermia, but not so cold that the soldiers would freeze to death,” she stated in an interview with Health Day. The boys provided evidence to back up this claim by confirming that the Shiloh Battle weather in Tennessee was cold and rainy enough to cause hypothermia.
The students determined, with the assistance of Phyllis Martin, that P. luminescens is a strong, if not the strongest, generation for the production of Angel's Glow. Despite their young ages, Bill Martin and Johnathan Curtis contributed to the world of history in a way no one had before. Angel's Glow might still be a mystery if it wasn’t for their dedication to proper interdisciplinary research.
During the night, the lesions of wounded soldiers shone a light blueish-green hue, and it seemed those who glowed remained alive longer, earning the term “Angel’s Glow” because soldiers believed it was miraculous healing caused by angels. Despite its supernatural appearance, Angel's Glow has a scientific explanation. In 2001, two high school students and Phyllis Martin, a microbiologist with a specialty in bioluminescent bacteria, discovered what likely happened on those two fateful nights.
Phyllis Martin’s son, Bill, a self-proclaimed “Civil War enthusiast,” together with his friend Johnathan Curtis, were fascinated by the unexplained occurrence. After much research, the boys discovered that Photorhabdus luminescens is a probable cause of the glow. P. luminescens is a bacterium living in parasitic worms, also known as nematodes, which kill other bacteria for food and space. Nematodes kill their opponents by vomiting P. luminescens, as opposed to using manufactured weapons like their hosts. Even though it sounds disgusting, the upheaval destroys any chance of more threatening bacteria thriving in the soldiers’ wounds. This enabled them to lay on the battlefield for days without contracting a lethal infection, only a pleasant glow.
The work of Martin and Curtis was a remarkable discovery for the fields of science and history, but their hypotheses raised a problem: P. luminescens cannot thrive in the human body because the average body temperature is too high. However, Phyllis Martin had the perfect response to such a contradiction. “The bacteria [P. luminescens] don’t grow at human body temperature. This had to happen at a particular time when it was cold enough that the body temperature would be lowered by hypothermia, but not so cold that the soldiers would freeze to death,” she stated in an interview with Health Day. The boys provided evidence to back up this claim by confirming that the Shiloh Battle weather in Tennessee was cold and rainy enough to cause hypothermia.
The students determined, with the assistance of Phyllis Martin, that P. luminescens is a strong, if not the strongest, generation for the production of Angel's Glow. Despite their young ages, Bill Martin and Johnathan Curtis contributed to the world of history in a way no one had before. Angel's Glow might still be a mystery if it wasn’t for their dedication to proper interdisciplinary research.
