From the heart of Washington, D.C. to downtown Oklahoma City,

from Antietam to Gettysburg and from Massachusetts back to Virginia.

Trees gently sway in the wind.

In a plea to help save the force of America in

1897, John Muir famously noted that God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought,

disease, avalanches, and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.

His writing went on to spark a conservation movement

that would protect considerable amounts of forests from coast to coast.

But in 2006, the National Park Service went a step further.

In collaboration with the Heritage Documentation Program, and as part of the Historic American Landscape Survey,

an effort would be made to intentionally protect some of the only surviving witnesses to an incredible wealth of American history.

These now designated witness trees stand tall as a dedication to all that has happened in their presence.

They ebb and flow and adapt to a world constantly changing around them, while simultaneously standing as silent bystanders to significant moments in American history. Shards of metal and bullets are deeply embedded in their bark,

lodged amidst the stories of those who sat and sometimes took their final breath beneath their branches.

They bring color to the tidal basin, grow in memory of those gone before us,

and stand as a constant reminder of the natural resilience that exists in the world.

While the National Park Service originally protected just 24 trees in and around the National Mall as a pilot version of a larger program,

today there are a multitude of identified witness trees protected far outside the boundaries of Washington, D.C.

And these are some of their stories.

I'm Jason Epperson, and this is Parkography.

Music fought in more than 10,000 places, from minor skirmishes to major conflicts, the American Civil War provided nothing but an opportunity for trees to bear witness to the clash of American versus American.

Of course, it's unknown just how many of these giants stood amidst the soldiers over 150 years ago,

...