Posted by Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt at 12:00 am on Jul 28, 2006 Comments Off on ‘Old Glory’ Survives Another Flap
Captain William Driver, a shipmaster in Salem, Mass, was leaving
on one of his many voyages aboard the brig Charles
Doggett. It was 1831, and it was a voyage that would
climax with the rescue of the mutineers of the
Bounty. Some of Captain Driver’s friends presented
him with a beautiful flag of twenty-four stars, and as the banner
opened to the ocean breeze for the first time he exclaimed "Old
Glory!"
The Captain retired to Nashville in 1837, taking the flag from
his sea days with him. By the time the Civil War erupted,
most people around Nashville recognized Captain Driver’s "Old
Glory." So when Tennessee seceded from the Union, rebels were
determined to destroy that flag, but repeated searches revealed no
trace of the hated banner. Then on February 25, 1862, Union
forces captured Nashville and raised the American flag over the
capitol. It was a rather small ensign, so immediately folks
began asking Captain Driver if "Old Glory" still existed.
Some soldiers escorted Driver to his home where he began ripping at
the seams of his bedcover. As the stitches holding the
quilt-top to the batting… Read More