The Elkton Historical Society has collected less than $1,000 to buy a pricey Civil War battle flag to be auctioned soon, but its members remain hopeful. The historic flag could fetch up to $220,000 at a Dec. 3 auction in Cincinnati. The auction will be conducted by Cowan’s Auctions Inc. “It’s been a slow go so far,“ the society’s president, Casey Billhimer, said of the past several months’ fundraising efforts to buy the locally important flag.

U.S. Special Forces soldiers conducting a daring nighttime operation freed a kidnapped American working for the Army Corps of Engineers—the first known hostage rescue by American forces in Afghanistan. The American, who was abducted in mid-August, had been held in a growing insurgent stronghold 30 miles west of Kabul, U.S. military officials said. They said that several insurgents were killed in last week’s mission to free him.

A U.S.-led coalition airstrike hit an Afghan army checkpoint yesterday, killing nine soldiers, Afghan officials said. The U.S. acknowledged that its forces “may have mistakenly killed and injured” Afghan soldiers in what may have been a case of mistaken identity on both sides. The deaths come as Afghan President Hamid Karzai presses international forces to avoid airstrikes in civilian areas.

About 170 members of the Virginia Army National Guard’s Manassas-based 266th Military Police Company will leave tomorrow for duty in Iraq. After training at Fort Dix, N.J., the Virginia Guard soldiers are scheduled to deploy to Iraq in early December. The soldiers will help train the Iraqi police force.