The Angel Glow of Shiloh

The Angel Glow of Shiloh
By Randy Jones

It was early April of 1862, the weather in western Tennessee was cool and wet but the tempers were hot. General Grant and 42,000 Yankees had crossed the Tennessee River at Pittsburgh Landing and set up camp in the Southern State near a small church named Shiloh. Oddly enough the name ‘Shiloh’ is based on a Hebrew word meaning ‘His Gift’. In the case of naming the church Shiloh, it would mean “God’s Gift”. 

Within a day of General Grant setting up camp to wait for the rest of the Army led by General Buell, Confederate General Johnston and 45,000 men headed north to meet the invading army. It was uncommon for a Confederate force to outnumber a Union force so this was thought to be a sure Southern victory. 

As dawn broke on April 06^th, a Yankee patrol found the Confederates staging for battle less than a mile from the main Union army. Before the word could reach the Union headquarters, General Johnston attacked, driving the surprised blue bellies back near Shiloh Church. During this rout, many of the Yankees left behind food, shoes, and other supplies which were greatly appreciated by the Confederate Army. These men were not the battle-hardened troops of Lee or Jackson’s famous Foot Cavalry, most of the troops on both side were inexperienced in battle but they did their best.

Throughout the day, the Confederates battered the Union army, driving it back towards Pittsburgh Landing and threatening to trap it against the Tennessee River. During the afternoon, General Johnston rode forward to direct the Confederate attack and was struck in the leg by a bullet, causing him to quickly bleed to death. Johnston was the highest ranking general on either side to be killed in action during the war.

There was a sunken stretch of road the Union had set up a defensive position in and it was referred to as a Hornet’s Nest because of the mini-balls zipping past one’s head, sounding like a hornet’s buzz. Yankees lost numerous defenders of this position but the Confederates lost more men who tried to and finally did take the position. Confederate General Pierre G. T. Beauregard had assumed command, and he gave the orders that halted the advance at nightfall. The Union army had been driven back two miles, but it did not break.

Men wounded during the first day of battle lay on the wet muddy soil, many in what was marsh land as it neared the river. There were not enough surgeons or medical supplies for either army’s needs and to many men the saying, “If the mini-ball doesn’t get you the surgeon will” held no comfort. About half of the soldiers died from blood poisoning or infection after the surgeon worked on them as medicine was nowhere near as advanced as it is today or even by the turn of the century. The men left in the open had to fend for themselves, which meant go without, and as a light rain set in with the cool temperatures, they would be fighting hypothermia.

As they lay in misery, Union General Buell and 20,000 more Yankees were coming across the river that night. The chances for a complete Confederate victory diminished as troops from Buell’s army began shoring up Grant’s command and the worn out, sagging Union line. When Dawn broke the next morning, the Confederates found themselves out numbered and facing troops that were well supplied.

Grant was no fool, he knew if he delayed even a day the Confederates would have time to rest from the previous days effort, so he counterattacked on the morning of April 07^th. The tired Confederates slowly retreated, but they inflicted heavy casualties on the Yankees. By nightfall, the Union had driven the Confederates back to Shiloh Church, recapturing grisly reminders of the previous day’s battle such as the Hornet’s Nest, the Peach Orchard and Bloody Pond. The Confederates finally limped back to Corinth, thus giving the victory to Grant. Tennessee would never be the same and this opened the door to Corinth, MS.

The cost of the victory was high for the Yankees and it was equally high for the Southerners. This two days of battle the would be the largest loss of men from of any battle in America to this date in history. More than 13,000 of Grant’s and Buell’s approximately 62,000 troops were killed, wounded, captured or missing. Of 45,000 Confederates engaged, there were more than 10,000 casualties. The 23,000 casualties in 48 hours, was a sobering reminder to all in the Union and the Confederacy that the war would be long and costly. It would take two days to find and haul in all of the wounded and dead from the fields of battle. The Battle of Shiloh and the meaning of Shiloh itself doesn’t seem to fit does it? But it does.

There were stories I read about and were told of as a child of how men in both armies that laid out in the weather in the wet lands and marshes had their wounds glow dimly in the nights. Many referred to this as an ‘Angel’s Glow’. It was said that even after two or three days of waiting for help, many of these men recovered quickly and suffered far less cases of infection. But this is no doubt just an old wives’ tale or such. Those were the days when even small wounds could get infected and lead to gangrene, amputation and/or death. The human body can’t glow and I can think of only a few things worse than looking down at a bullet wound, bayonet gash or such and to see it have a blue-green glow about it.

In 2001, a young boy visited Shiloh with his family and heard to story of the Angel Glow and the wounded recovering better because of it. In 2015 this teenager and a friend decided to make a science project out of this and two high school students set out to debunk or prove this myth. It helps that his mother was already a scientist and studying Nematodes. They did find something interesting.

Nematodes, or roundworms, are typically a parasitic worm. There are thought to be a million different kinds of nematodes, but the ones in question fed on insects found in the dirt and mud in that area. These nematodes hunt for insect larvae in the mud, burrow into their bodies, and then regurgitate a bacteria into the larvae which kills the host from the inside out. The bacteria is called Photorhabdus Luminescens, and it’s bioluminescent glows a soft blue.

The soldiers laying on the cold wet ground had nematodes living in their wounds vomiting up this kind of bacteria. Sounds bad doesn’t it? The P. Luminescens were working to devour the germs and bacteria that otherwise would have led to an infection. So, having worms might not be a bad thing. Given the awful conditions during the Civil War, soldiers were undernourished and operating with weakened immune systems. This further diminished their ability to fight off bacterial infections on their own.

Still roundworms and glowing bacteria does not sound healthy. Except the bacteria and this type of Nematode do not survive well in a human host because the body temperature is too high and after the soldiers were collected up and hauled into the hospital they were warmed back up allowing their bodies to kills off the roundworms and bacteria.

Back to Shiloh and God’s Gift. Most of us would not think that cold weather was a God-send if we were wounded and laying on the ground while being soaked with a light rain. Most of us would not consider getting a bacteria puking parasitic roundworm in a wound a positive thing either. Or seeing a wound glow at night. But this proves that the wisdom of God is beyond the understanding of man. It only took about 150 years to prove God’s provision, for if the battle had not happened near Shiloh, if it had not been cool enough to bring the body temperature down and had not been wet, the ‘Angel Glow’ would not have saved the lives of so many men.

First Corinthians 1:25 tells us, “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”And in Second Corinthians 9: 8 we are told, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.” Maybe the soldiers did see God’s hand of provision in this because they named it Angel Glow, which could mean it could have been considered a gift from God.

We need to look for an expect to find God’s love, grace and provisions around us at all times, during victory or defeat, during battle or peace time.

Copyright 2018 by Randy Jones