Six Civil War Medical Myths That Just Won't Die-- Part 4: Glowing Wounds at Shiloh?

MYTH  #4

At Shiloh, wounds were reported to glow -- which was supposedly cause by bacteria Photorhabdus luminescens.

There are many google search results relating to this story "discovered" by high school students.  They claim to have visited Shiloh National Military Park where they heard a story about glowing wounds.  They, in turn, claim that they have discovered the bacteria responsible for those glowing wounds.

According to a NPS Ranger there:  "The only problem with this story is that there is no historical documentation of the event [glowing wounds] ever occurring, at Shiloh or anywhere else.  Not a single letter, diary entry, newspaper account, soldier's journal, , official report... nothing."

So, no known contemporary primary or secondary source accounts of glowing wounds -- and, the bacteria requires a temperature below 93.4 degrees.  That's well below  the normal temperature of a living human body.

--Old SeceshGlow

Marking His Spot-- Part 1: Hot Fight at Second Battle of Bull Run

From the July 2019 America's Civil War "One Shot, One Kill" by Doug Wicklund and Michael G. William.  It was one man's need to mark his spot at the Second Battle of Bull Run that led to a sign on that battlefield that still exists.

At the battle, Berdan's Sharpshooters rushed into an open field ahead of the main assault on Stonewall Jackson's troops at the Deep Cut.  They managed to repel skirmishers, which caused Jackson's men to open fire from the trace of an unfinished railroad.

George Albee of Company G, 1st Regt.of Berdan's U.S. Sharpshooters was wounded during this action, but returned after the war to place a signboard on a tall cedar post to mark his company's location during the fight.  That pole has been replaced  several times over the years, but a sign still occupies the same spot at the Manassas National Battlefield Park.

--Old Secesh

Bits 'O War: Last Shot-- New NPS Site-- Lee's Sword

Bits 'O War--  New News About an Old War  This Used to be Running the Blockade before that blog broke away, seceded if you will, from this blog.

1.  LAST SHOT--  Waynesville, NC, erected by local Confederate group in 1923.  It was fired May 6, 1865.  This disputed by many other "Last Shot" sites across South. It was originally surrounded by Sulphur Springs Park, now gone, The monument now on corner of someone's yard.

 2.  NEW NPS SITE--  It gives an overview and guide to more than 1700 sites and 100 National Parks with a Civil War Theme.

3.  LEE'S SWORD--  The general's sword at Appomattox surrender at the new 11,700 square foot Museum of the Confederacy at Appomattox.

Just Some New News.  --Old Secesh