Witness Trees

At various battlefields and historical buildings across the country, old trees still survive that were living during the Civil War. There are two enormous, craggy old catalpa trees that still thrive on the property of the Ellwood Plantation in Fredericksburg. And even though it's dead, an old tree stump still stands at Vicksburg National Military Park, riddled with bullets.

These trees would tell quite a story if they could talk. Unfortunately, they just can't live forever. One such casualty is a tree at Gettysburg National Military Park that recently died, estimated to have lived 147 years.

The good thing is that they can live on as reminders of our precious past. The wood has been donated to the Gettysburg Foundation for use in preservation, just as bricks from old historic buildings have been auctioned off for fund raising purposes.