SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. -- The National Park Service will hold two public meetings featuring a historian as it considers whether to add the Shepherdstown Battlefield to the system.

The meetings are set for Feb. 23 at the Stephen T. Mather Training Center in Harpers Ferry and Feb. 25 at the Clarion Hotel in Shepherdstown.

Park service officials will gather public comment, and author Thomas McGrath will talk about the events that occurred during the two-day battle in Shepherdstown in 1862.

Congress ordered the special resource study to determine whether the battlefield should be added to the national park system. It could become an addition to either Harpers Ferry National Historical Park or Maryland's Antietam National Battlefield.

Comments will be accepted until March 13.