A new look at the Wilderness

[NH Civil War Gal]

This is eerie. I'm reading from a book by Meyer's about White's Battalion's, "The Commanches." He's talking about how in May they had to traverse back through the Wilderness.

"The second squadron was sent on picket to the left of the army, where it remained for some days, and on its return to the command about the 20th, the first was ordered out fo a tour of duty of the same kind between Todd's Tavern and the Court House; but about 2 o'clock on the morning of the 21st received an order to join the battalion, then bringing up the rear of the army, which was moving by Spottsylvania Court-house towards the North Anna river. The march was rather an exciting one, leading as it did over the broad battle-fields of the Wilderness, where many hundreds of dead men still lay unburied, and the squadron was obliged to pass directly over them, when, as the hoofs of the horses would strike the corpses, the flesh would strip from the bones, leaving them glistening in the phosphorescent light that played around them, and the weird, ghostly influence of the scene affected the men, in the silence and gloom of that early morning, more than the presence of any number of live Yankees could have done; but the night wore away—very slowly indeed, it seemed—and by an hour after sunrise the battalion united a few miles below the Court-house, when it slowly marched along along the Richmond road……"

What was the "weird, phosphorescent light" that they were seeing? And boy, that had to be an awful scene to march through at night - every step a new and horrid surprise and a new and horrid jump scare.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

I think this is the reason, and no doubt the basis of many "ghost" stories:

Forensic books document postmortem luminescence, as an unusual, but natural part of the decomposition of the human body, especially when it's left outside. Sometimes this luminescence is due to Armillaria mellea, otherwise known as the honey fungus. The name comes from the golden umbrella of the fungus, and the fact that the fungus is sticky when it gets wet. The body of the fungus doesn't glow. Only the tiny, thread-like mycelia of the growing fungus glows. These fungus grows in decaying matter, often lighting up people's woodpiles. They grow on the decaying matter of corpses as well.

Source:

Why Has No Zombie Movie Made Use Of The Fact That Corpses Glow?

Oh the things we learn when we skim through forensic medicine textbooks for a living. Apparently, there is a phenomenon called “postmortem luminescence.”

gizmodo.com

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

A slightly different natural phenomena that is sometimes mentioned in diaries and memoirs is that the enemy corpses are seen to turn black after death, unlike "our boys." This is often attributed to the fact that the enemy had to give their soldiers a mixture of whiskey and gunpowder in order to fight, (the implication being that they were cowards otherwise.)

As crazy as that sounds, many people seemed to believe that. In peace time, people were buried before their bodies turned black after death, or the decay was well concealed by an undertaker. On the battlefield, the bodies of the enemy, if they were buried at all, were buried some time after those of the victorious army, and were often well advanced into the various stages of decomposition, which was hastened when the weather was particularly warm.

Men were more likely to express this myth in their writings at the beginning of the war, because of their inexperience with the realities of death. In the later stages of the conflict, it was the female nurses or those visiting battlefields who were most likely to mention the "gunpowder and whiskey" canard.

As an additional aside, another thing that gets mentioned a lot is that "our boys," when wounded, suffer quietly like men, while the enemy is heard to moan and cry like children. This overlooks the obvious reality that any pain killer that was available, like morphine, was usually distributed to one's own soldiers before any was dispensed to the enemy combatants.

 

[stu613]

I no longer have my copy but it seems like I remember Sam Watkins in his book "Company Aytch" talking about some strange lights/UFO's in the sky at night-dont remember which battle it was. Maybe someone can verify/correct me.

 

[Nathan Stuart]

I remember Sam Watkins in his book "Company Aytch" talking about some strange lights/UFO's in the sky at night-dont remember which battle it was. Maybe someone can verify/correct me.

You might be referring to Watkins's described night-sky observations of lightning while he was at Romney during Jan. '62.

He vividly stated in Chapter 1 of 'Company Aytch', ...'The zig-zag lightnings began to flare and flash, and sheet after sheet of wild flames seemed to burst right over our heads and were hissing around us. The very elements seemed to be one aurora borealis with continued lightning. Streak after streak of lightning seemed to be piercing each the other, the one from the north and the other from the south. The white clouds would roll up, looking like huge snow balls, encircled with living fires."...

 

[captaindrew]

The "Angels Glow" it's been discussed here before, look it up in the search function. I'd give a link but dummy me doesn't know how to do it with my phone.

 

[Jamieva]

Thread 'Angel's Glow At Shiloh'

Apr 3, 2021

Angel's Glow was the name given to the mysterious glow emitted the wounds of American civil war soldiers. The cause of this glow is hypothesized to be the bacteria Photorhabdus luminescens. This bacteria lives in the guts of a nematode that is commonly found in Shiloh, Tennessee where the phenomenon was reported happening.

The night was cold and dark and deadly. Countless soldiers lay scattered on the muddy battlefield, awaiting medical attention. Blood gushed from their open wounds, the risk of infection taking them ever closer to death's door. As though by magic, however, the wounds...

• sourdough
• Replies: 10
• Forum: Medical Care

• 

 

[iron bender]

Greg Coco's book Strange and Blighted Land mentions this situation on the night of July 3 or 4. Federal soldiers on LRT seeing green haze over the dead

 

[BetterAngels]

wow that's interesting…. a quick look around online doesn't really find any of that happening in ancient Roman or Greek battlefields but a quick search is, just that. Don't see anything about this in the American Revolution either. I did find a reference about bioluminescence but that's well known, and occurs only near coastlines: https://silentsparks.com/2021/02/05/luminous-tales-from-surf-n-turf/
It was also described at Shiloh.
Why would it only occur on ACW battlefields?

 

[BetterAngels]

oh wait it was a whole thing at Shiloh, called Angel's Glow.

Why Some Wounded Civil War Soldiers Actually Glowed In The Dark – And Lived Because Of It

"Angel's Glow" was a phenomenon at the Battle of Shiloh where soldiers' wounds glowed in the dark. It took 139 years to figure out why.

allthatsinteresting.com