It was just about a year ago that the Civil War Trust embarked on the first year of the sesquicentennial commemoration of the Civil War. During that year, the Trust was able to save more than 2,000 acres of hallowed ground.

On September 17, 1862, savage combat at the Battle of Antietam near Sharpsburg, Maryland, yielded 23,000 casualties. This Friday, on the 148th anniversary of the battle that blunted the first Confederate invasion of the North and opened the way to the Emancipation Proclamation, an all-day guided hike at Antietam National Battlefield will give visitors a close encounter with the scenes of the action on "the bloodiest day in American history."

A new challenge facing national park managers sounds like material from a Hollywood medical thriller. Unfortunately, it's fact—not fiction—and it has the potential to become a major problem in the years ahead.

The powerful storm that struck the National Capital Region on June 4 damaged many park units. Antietam National Battlefield was hit very hard, but it could have been worse. The park’s witness trees escaped unscathed.