Witness Trees: Silent Sentinels of American History

By Lizzie Tesch

Charles Reed's sketch from July 2, 1863, depicts Major General Daniel E. Sickles taking shade under a tree to plan his next move during the Battle of Gettysburg.

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 forests 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 forest from coast to coast, but in 2006, the National Park Service went a step further. In collaboration with the Heritage Documentation Program and as a part of the Historic American Landscapes 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. 

Listen to this episode:

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. It is unknown just how many of these giants stood amidst soldiers over 150 years ago, but countless trees have already been identified as bystanders. An old oak, rooted at the Throslte Farm outside Gettysburg, Pennsylvania still stands, providing shade the same way it did in an otherwise wide-open field in 1863. A collection of trees, scattered at Manassas National Battlefield, were witness to not just one, but two major conflicts of the war. And thanks to photographic evidence, we know that in 1862 a young sycamore grew quietly beside a bridge that would serve as the backdrop for the bloodiest day in United States history.

In the days following the Battle of Antietam, Civil War photographer Alexander Gardner captured a series of 70 photos depicting the aftermath of the catastrophic clash between the Union and the Confederacy. Never before had an American battlefield been photographed before the dead had been buried, offering a stunning look at the true price of the ongoing war. Amidst the photos are several of what is now referred to as the “Burnside Bridge,” and next to it, a young tree of just a few years, growing on the banks of the creek, where just hours before the fight for control had finally come to an end.

Sometimes referred to as the Battle of Sharpsburg, the Battle of Antietam took place on September 17, 1862, between General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and General George McClellan’s Army of the Potomac. As the first army-level field engagement in the Eastern Theater to take place on Union soil, it would prove to be a major turning point, even when shadowed by extensive losses on both sides. 

Lee’s army of about 55,000 men arrived in Maryland in early September, eagerly riding the high of victory at the Second Battle of Bull Run on August 30. As they pushed into Union territory, the lingering sound of impending conflict could be heard in the whistle of leaves. The battle would begin at dawn when Major General Joseph Hooker of the Union Army launched a powerful assault on Lee’s left flank. Fighting would continue to dance around the Dunker Church, sweep across the open cornfields, and halt along the Sunken Road, where the heaviest fighting would occur with an astonishing 5,600 casualties in a mere three and a half hours. 

But by the afternoon, two truths were apparent: both sides were reeling from major losses, and the Union’s continued hesitance only lengthened the conflict and exacerbated the death toll. At the suggestion of General McClellan, Union Major General Ambrose Burnside significantly delayed his push to capture an essential outlet for the Confederacy: the stone bridge that now bears his name. Throughout the battle, less than three-quarters of Union forces would engage in combat, while Lee would send in his entire force, allowing them to move easily from threat to threat and ultimately fortify along Antietam Creek. 

Confederate forces were successfully able to withstand Burnside’s troops until late in the day when the Union Army finally overtook the bridge. Beneath the leaves of the sycamore at its side, 600 casualties would occur in the fight for the bridge as the battle of Antietam came to a bloody conclusion. While paling in comparison to the astonishing loss along the 800-yard “Bloody Lane” earlier in the day, the fight for the creek saw heavy fighting, and like the young tree, equally young soldiers stood their ground in an incredible display of perseverance. 

While typically considered a Union victory, there is no question that both sides suffered exceptionally heavy losses at Antietam. 25% of the Union forces would become casualties of the battle, with over 12,000 total. Confederate troops faced even higher losses, with 10,000 casualties amounting to 31% of the soldiers that arrived in Sharpsburg. Over a single day, the combined losses would amount to nearly the same as the two-day total from Shiloh five months earlier, but the strategic Union victory would also embolden President Abraham Lincoln to issue the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation on September 22. It would also cause him to reconsider McClellan’s position as general, and he would replace the commander of the Army of the Potomac with Burnside in the weeks that followed. 

Through it all, the sycamore held its ground, having witnessed some of the heaviest fighting of the day. It still stands as part of the Antietam National Battlefield, next to the bridge bearing Burnside’s name. Typically regarded as one of the nation’s best-preserved Civil War sites, visitors can experience the landscape nearly as it was on September 17, 1862. The Battlefield is open daily except for major holidays and features nearly 3,000 acres that can be viewed on foot or by car. 

Watch the latest PARKography episode:

Far from the creek at Antietam, another tree still stands as a tribute to the resilience that can be found in the face of adversity. The morning of April 19, 1995 began quietly. The sun rose over downtown Oklahoma City as locals rushed to work, eager to grab a spot beneath the only shade tree in the parking lot of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. It had put down roots nearly 100 years before, and already bore witness to the continuous cycle of life, somehow growing at odd angles in the heart of the city, limited by the concrete surrounding it. 

But at 9:02 AM, everything changed. 

A 48,000-pound ammonium nitrate-fuel oil bomb exploded inside a truck parked at the north entrance of the Federal Building, taking with it 168 people and injuring approximately 850. The attack was planned by extremists Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nicholas and would destroy more than one-third of the structure, which ultimately had to be demolished, and would also impact an additional 324 buildings in the area. And yet, there, in the parking lot, heavily damaged by the bomb, stood the American Elm. 

Following what is now regarded as the deadliest act of domestic terrorism in U.S. history, investigators carefully removed evidence hanging from the bare branches. Shards of metal and debris were lodged into its trunk and fire blackened its bark. Still, it continued to stand, serving as a gathering place for family members, survivors, and rescue workers in the years that followed, and slowly, as time passed and against all odds, it began to bloom again. 

Many of the trees in the Witness Tree Protection Program have recovered naturally. On the battlefields of the Civil War, bullets have been found hidden deep beneath the renewed bark of the trees. For the elm in Downtown Oklahoma, what was once a bruised and battered individual in a parking lot struggling to survive has since become an astonishing example of healing. The wounds left by the blast have aged over, the leaves have returned, and the branches have stretched further with each passing year. 

Nearly 30 years later, the now-aptly-named Survivor Tree thrives. The memorial that surrounds it was specifically designed to highlight and protect the elm to ensure its continued endurance. Special attention was given to the roots so that they may expand for years to come, and a crawl space beneath the visitor boardwalk allows for the monitoring of the health of the tree. An inscription at the Oklahoma City National Memorial reads “The spirit of this city and this nation will not be defeated; our deeply rooted faith sustains us,” paying tribute to all the tree has come to represent: the continuous resilience of not just an American Elm in the path of a bomb, but in the American population itself. 

The Oklahoma City National Memorial is open 24 hours a day, year-round, and also features an expansive outdoor space that includes a Memorial Fence, which has served as a collection spot for over 60,000 items left in commemoration and remembrance of the event, A Field of Empty Chairs, which sits within the original footprint of the Federal Building and features 168 empty chairs each inscribed with a name of a victim, a Survivor Wall that features the names of those who survived the attack, and a nearby Memorial Museum. 

Home to a multitude of memorials and historic sites, it shouldn’t be surprising that Washington D.C. is also home to the largest cluster of protected Witness Trees in the country. With significant historical evidence to trace each individual plant’s history, the process of identifying these residents is significantly easier than trying to determine the age of one on a battlefield that has long since healed the wounds left by stray bullets. 

The Yoshino Cherry trees that bloom along the Tidal Basin, for instance, are among the easiest to identify by the passing visitor, a representation of friendship between two countries. Nearby, in the shadow of the Washington Monument, an equally identifiable white mulberry tree rooted all on its own, serving as witness to massive events on the National Mall such as Dr. Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. And, just North of the Smithsonian Freer Gallery, a lone survivor of 333 American Elms planted in 1935 continues to provide opportunities for research on Dutch elm disease and has stood for almost 100 years. One such Witness Tree, however, doesn’t require a trip to the Nation’s Capital to observe. 

When President Andrew Jackson left his Tennessee home in 1829 for the White House, he carried with him a sprout from one of his wife’s favorite magnolia trees. Still in mourning following her passing just months before his inauguration, the seedling would be planted along the south portico of the White House, where it has grown and become a constant fixture of presidencies since.

Franklin D. Roosevelt was said to have sat with Winston Churchill “underneath that old magnolia tree,” and it is said to have also been a favorite of Herbert Hoover, who frequently enjoyed his breakfast in the shade it provided. First Lady Laura Bush commissioned a new set of White House China inspired by the blossoms seen from the nearby window, and Barack Obama gifted seedlings to foreign countries as a symbol of friendship, much like the cherry trees along the Tidal Basin had done before them. 

The tree has sprouted a wealth of seedlings that now grow across the country, but from 1928 until 1998, the everyday citizen would have the opportunity to gaze upon its branches, as a depiction of Jackson’s Magnolia tree could be found on the reverse side of the twenty-dollar bill. While the updated bill no longer depicts the Magnolia, the current twenty-dollar bill does feature an American Elm on the right side of the north entrance to the White House, which was planted sometime between 1902 and 1906 during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt and has also stood as witness to the everyday life of the nation’s highest office. 

National Park Service, and the office of the president, the White House has made the decision to remove the Jackson Magnolia to ensure the safety of staff, visitors and the Grounds themselves. Arborists cut the tree down in sections using a chainsaw, then lowered the parts with wires on Monday, April 7th. 

The White House will ensure the preservation of remnants of the "Jackson Magnolia" and use those for future saplings. A 12 year old sapling that was grown at the offsite National Park Service Greenhouse in preparation for the removal of the tree, is expected to be planted by President Donald Trump on April 8th, 2025.