 This famous
name was coined by Captain Stephen Driver, a shipmaster of Salem,
Massachusetts, in 1831. As he was leaving on one of his many voyages
aboard the brig CHARLES DOGGETT - and this one would climax with the
rescue of the mutineers of the BOUNTY - some friends presented him
with a beautiful flag of twenty four stars. As the banner opened to the
ocean breeze for the first time, he exclaimed "Old Glory!"
He retired to Nashville in 1837, taking
his treasured flag from his sea days with him. By the time the Civil War
erupted, most everyone in and around Nashville recognized Captain Driver's
"Old Glory." When Tennessee seceded from the Union, Rebels were determined
to destroy his flag, but repeated searches revealed no trace of the hated
banner.
Then on February 25th, 1862, Union forces
captured Nashville and raised the American flag over the capital. It was a
rather small ensign and immediately folks began asking Captain Driver if
"Old Glory" still existed. Happy to have soldiers with him this time,
Captain Driver went home and began ripping at the seams of his bedcover.
As the stitches holding the quilt-top to the batting unraveled, the
onlookers peered inside and saw the 24-starred original "Old Glory"!
Captain Driver gently gathered up the flag
and returned with the soldiers to the capitol. Though he was sixty years
old, the Captain climbed up to the tower to replace the smaller banner
with his beloved flag. The Sixth Ohio Regiment cheered and saluted - and
later adopted the nickname "Old Glory" as their own, telling and
re-telling the story of Captain Driver's devotion to the flag we honor yet
today.
Captain Driver's grave is located in the
old Nashville City Cemetery, and is one of three (3) places authorized by
act of Congress where the Flag of the United States may be flown 24 hours
a day.
We do not know where "Old Glory" resides
today. A caption above a faded black and white picture in the book, The
Stars and the Stripes, says only that " 'Old Glory' may no longer be
opened to be photographed, and no color photograph is available." Visible
in the photo in the lower right corner of the canton is an appliquéd
anchor, Captain Driver's very personal note. "Old Glory" is the most
illustrious of a number of flags - both Northern and Confederate - reputed
to have been similarly hidden, then later revealed as times changed.
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