BY KATIE THISDELL

Three roads in the planned Stafford County Civil War Park will be paved this summer.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday allocated $48,000 to the Friends of Stafford Civil War Sites for the materials needed for the road work.

Work will be done by the Virginia Air Guard's 203rd Red Horse Squadron from Langley Air Force Base, as part of a training exercise.

Relying on help from the military has helped the park get closer to completion.

Last summer, the Virginia Army National Guard's 276th Combat Engineer Battalion spent several weeks working in the park.

They'll be back in July to prepare the roads, on the property near Brooke, adjacent to the Rappahannock Regional Landfill.

The 41-acre park tells the story of the winter 1862-63 encampments of 130,000 Union soldiers.

No battles were fought in the county, but here, soldiers recuperated from defeats in Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, before moving on to win the Battle of Gettysburg in June 1863.

Since February 2011, $158,000 has been spent on the park, according to county documents. The project is about halfway complete.

Katie Thisdell: 540/735-1975
Email: kthisdell@freelancestar.com