By Emily Mullin and Joseph D. Szydlowski

(AXcess News) Washington - Nearly 300 demonstrators marched from a park honoring a Union general killed in the Civil War to the White House on Monday to protest the War in Afghanistan.

From McPherson Square, honoring Gen. James B. McPherson, protesters wearing orange prisoner jumpsuits or black robes and white masks, walked the two blocks in silence.

They also protested President Barack Obama's decision to send more troops to the country. Obama was at the White House, talking to doctors about health care, but he has also held a series of meetings in recent days about whether to change the strategy in Afghanistan.

Frida Berrigan, 35, of Brooklyn, joined the protest as an organizer for the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, a group that is against the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the recent drone attacks in Pakistan.

"We're here to sort of represent the majority of Americans that oppose the war in Afghanistan," Berrigan said.

Berrigan said the Obama administration has adopted many of the previous administration's war policies, but she said she is optimistic that Obama will listen to American citizens' opinions.

 "I think we have to be very dogged and persistent and clear and keep pushing for him to do more than listen but actually kind of change his policies," Berrigan said.

A coalition of anti-war groups organized the protest, including the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance, War Resisters League, Witness Against Torture, Code Pink, Peace Action, World Can't Wait, Veterans for Peace and Voices for Creative Nonviolence.

The demonstrations began at 8:30 a.m. at the Supreme Court then moved to McPherson Square and the White House by 11: 30 a.m. Most of the demonstrators had dispersed by mid-afternoon.

About 20 protesters dressed in orange prisoner jumpsuits with black hoods over their heads, symbolizing the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. About 10 of the protesters chained themselves to the White House fence in objection to the wars and the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay.

One of those arrested was Richard Marini, 35, of Staten Island, a volunteer since 2005 for the World Can't Wait campaign.

Seconds before he was taken into custody, Marini said he was aware he was subjecting himself to arrest but said it served an important cause.

"These wars aren't to stop terrorism," Marini said. "These are wars for capitalism."

U.S. Park Police made 61 arrests. They were taken by bus to a Park Police holding cell. Police said the protesters had violated a law mandating that groups of 25 or more must obtain a permit to demonstrate in front of the White House.

All were charged with failing to obey a lawful order. They were scheduled for court dates and released.

Kathy Boylan, 66, of Washington, said she's been protesting war since May 17, 1968, the same day as the Catonsville Nine incident, when nine Catholics burned hundreds of draft records in protest of the Vietnam War.

"I was so moved by what they did that I began to work for a world without war," she said.

Frida Berrigan's father, Philip Berrigan, a longtime antiwar protester, was one of the Catonsville Nine.

Tim Chadwick, 57, of Bethlehem, Pa., said he's been involved with the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance since 2005 and has been arrested several times before at war protests.

Chadwick said he doesn't think the Obama administration will change its policy on the war in Afghanistan but said his organization is "going to continue to put pressure on him" to pull U.S. troops from the country.

"The devastation is just horrible," he said. "It doesn't make any sense."

Paul Kawika Martin, political director for Peace Action, has been a part of the organization for 10 years. He said he had just returned from a trip to Afghanistan Monday morning. He met with some government officials there.

"I don't want to see Obama put more troops in Afghanistan," he said.

Martin said the Obama administration is "doing better than the Bush administration" about the war in Afghanistan by talking more openly about Afghan civilian issues, U.S. public opinion on the war and military issues.

Source: Scripps Howard Foundation Wire