PHARSALIA – Pharsalia town officials are paying homage to soldiers past with a Civil War memorial that was unveiled in the Pharsalia town park on Thursday.

Affixed to a boulder near the park pavilion, the bronze plaque commemorates the 140 men from the township who signed up to fight in the Civil War. Town Board members are planning a special dedication of the plaque to take place during the town’s annual community picnic at the pavilion this Saturday.

Pharsalia had also sent 20 other men to war who were not official town residents but volunteered for combat, presumably because the township’s $1,000 bounty to each man willing to go. At the time, the township borrowed nearly $100,000 to pay the bounty.