The Civil War began as a struggle between armies of volunteers more than a century ago. On Saturday, a different army of volunteers will have the opportunity to work the battlefield – this time, with paint brushes, rakes and trash bags.

Park Day at Fort McAllister will be Saturday, April 5, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

"We’ve done a Park Day volunteer event every year," Park Manager Daniel Brown said. "We generally get anywhere from 20 to 70 volunteers who come and help with a ‘spring cleaning.’ This year, we will be raking, hammering nails on our CW huts, doing some light painting, pulling pine saplings off the fort walls, etc. Volunteers can bring rakes, gloves, bug spray and hammers if they have any of those available."

Everyone’s invited to come out and participate. Brown said volunteers will get a Park Day t-shirt, lunch and be able to listen to a historical talk about the fort.

Fort McAllister will join more than 110 historic states across 24 states in this nationwide volunteer effort recognized by the U.S. Department of the Interior as a "Take Pride in America" event. For more information, visit www.civilwar.org/parkday.