WITNESS TREES

We sometimes forget that there are some living witnesses to Civil War battles: trees! Trees, of course, can’t tell us about the battles they witnessed—or can they?

A witness tree on Culp’s Hill at Gettysburg National Battlefield Park recently succumbed to old age. Workers chopping it into smaller pieces discovered bullets fired during the battle embedded in the trunk. Sections with bullets are being preserved, and will be displayed in the museum at the battlefield:

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