CHELSEA — Charles Searls knew the risk every time he picked up a flag and waved it high on the front lines, serving as a reminder of what the men were fighting for. Searls, who was killed in action on May 27, 1863, in fighting at Port Hudson, Louisiana, wrote about the danger and his willingness to face it in a poem he composed some months before his death.

“A word to my mother, one word for her joy, may banish her sorrow, fill her with joy,” Searls wrote. “Oh! Do not be weeping, for gladly I go, waving my banner in the face of the foe.”

Tim Morgan reads a poem by Civil War soldier Charles Searls during the dedication of a new flagpole.

Attendees salute on Saturday during the dedication of a new flagpole at the Chelsea Grange hall. Photos by Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

The new flagpole was dedicated Saturday in honor of Civil War soldier Charles Searls at the Chelsea Grange hall. Staff photo by Joe Phelan

Elmore Morgan

Those words echoed down through the corridors of history Saturday when Searls’ poem was read again – this time not by a grieving mother, but by a Searls descendant, Tim Morgan, who recited the verses as part of a ceremony to dedicate a flagpole outside the Chelsea Grange in Searls’ honor.

Another descendant, Elmore Morgan of West Gardiner, asked to put up the flagpole at the Grange hall on Togus Road because he didn’t want Charles Searls’ sacrifice to be forgotten, Chelsea Grange member Kay Khalvati said.

MORE RECENT VETS HONORED, TOO

Veterans from throughout the area, including Marine veteran Tim Morgan, took part in Saturday’s dedication and then were honored for their service during a separate ceremony. Roughly a dozen veterans were invited to talk about their experiences from their military service, which ranged from World War II to the war in Iraq. Pianist Joyce Fessenden peppered the ceremony with military and patriotic songs.

Morgan, accompanied by the Kennebec County Veterans Honor Guard, helped unfurl and raise both the American and Maine state flags after he read all of the poems Searls wrote about his job as a color guard for the 21st Maine Infantry Regiment Company K during the Civil War. He was just 19 when he was shot in the chest and seriously wounded. He died two weeks later.

“The bravest of the brave,” said descendant Alton Morgan, who still holds the letters Searls wrote home to his mother. He talked about what is in those letters, which describe terrible conditions and longing for home.

Searls and his 42-year-old stepfather both volunteered to join the 21st Maine Infantry regiment, Alton Morgan said.

The 21st was trained at Camp Keyes in Augusta, which it left in October 1862. The soldiers boarded a steamer, the Commodore, in Boston, bound for New York.

HAUNTED BY ILLNESS

“On their way, a young soldier came down with the measles,” Alton Morgan said. “The measles haunted the regiment for a long time.” The men went briefly to Washington, D.C., before they were ordered back to New York.

“The Maine men were not seasoned to march in heavy marching order and were wearied about their six-mile march,” Alton Morgan said. “Upon arrival at the camp, the autumn rains had softened the ground to a muddy mixture and were covered by putrid pools of the vilest filth.”

In January 1863, members of six companies, including Searls’, were taken to the sailing ship Onward, which had been retrofitted, stem to stern, with three tiers of beds 6 feet wide and 7 feet long.

“Four men would sleep across with all their equipment,” Alton Morgan said. “Ventilation was at a premium. You can just imagine the scene with hundreds of seasick men and the stifling atmosphere with odors indescribable.”

Searls, now a corporal, landed in Baton Rouge and described the scene in a letter to his mother. There were about 20,000 troops.

“The rebels are encamped nearly five miles from here,” Searls wrote. “Their pickets and ours have exchanged quite a number of shots.”

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