When General Robert E. Lee's troops were battling the Union forces at Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 13, 1862, his cannons atop Lee's Hill and nearby Howison Hill had clear lines of fire. Today they'd be lucky to hit the proverbial broad side of a barn.

President Bush received a very special tour of Gettysburg National Military Park. To paraphrase Mel Brooks, “It’s Good to be the President.”

Remember the good old days, when you could enter a national park and there was no cost to hike a trail, tour a museum, or enjoy nature? Well, those days seemingly are fleeting. In a move likely to disappoint many, the folks at Gettysburg National Military Park are thinking of charging a fee to access their museum.

As with the southern Pennsylvania countryside surrounding the town of Gettysburg, the struggles between the United States and Confederate armies from 1861 to 1865 often brought war to beautiful places, with many battles fought in the pastoral landscapes of eastern, southern, and middle America— in rolling fields and woods, along rivers and streams, among farmsteads, and often in or near villages, towns, or cities.

A huge old honey locust tree that was a silent witness to the Battle of Gettysburg and Lincoln's Gettysburg Address has been so severely damaged by a storm that it will probably not survive.

Today, well over a century after the Civil War ended in 1865, it is difficult to imagine the battlefields of Antietam, Vicksburg, Shiloh, Gettysburg, Chickamauga, and Chattanooga had they been neglected, instead of preserved as military parks. As compelling historic landscapes of great natural beauty and public interest, these early military parks have been familiar to generations of Americans.

The first major land engagement of the Civil War was fought 147 years ago this month. The ensuing four-year struggle entailed more than 2,000 battles or skirmishes and cost more than 600,000 American lives. This quiz tests your knowledge of Civil War national parks and the battles they commemorate. Answers are at the end. No peeking.

The Battle of Gettysburg, a famously important Union victory, ended 145 years ago on July 3rd. We can more clearly appreciate what happened at Gettysburg by visiting Gettysburg National Military Park and trying to understand the battle as a human experience, not just a mammoth clash of arms.

Dozens of movies have depicted actors and actresses cavorting, romancing, running, hiding, fighting, and yes, even dying in national parks or places destined to become national parks. Here are ten of Traveler's favorite movies with a national park connection of some sort. Note that we don’t restrict the field to films shot on location in parks.

At 8 a.m. EDT Monday a door will open into this country's most bitter moment in history when the $105 million Museum and Visitor Center at Gettysburg National Military Park opens for business.

With the 150th anniversary of the launch of the Civil War in the offing, tour operators are lining up to explain the conflict to visitors of such parks as Antietam National Battlefield and Gettysburg National Military Park.