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166:. Driver was 34-years-old and had three young children. He settled in Nashville, Tennessee, where his three brothers operated a store. Driver remarried the next year to Sarah Jane Parks, a Southerner with whom he had several more children. Driver took his flag to Nashville, flying it on holidays, rain or shine. The flag was so large that he attached it to a rope from his attic window and stretched it on a pulley across the street to secure it to a locust tree. Driver worked as a salesman and served as
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128:. In celebration of his appointment, Driver's mother and other women sewed the flag and gave it to him as a gift in 1824. It was believed that while leaving the harbor, the Captain unfurled his new flag, calling out "Behold Old Glory." With this flag flying over his ship, Driver went on to have a colorful career as a U.S.
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Jennifer Locke Jones and
Thomassen-Krauss began in 2012. Preliminary findings indicate that the larger Roland flag has the stronger claim to being the original Old Glory but that the Peabody flag dated to the same era and is a legitimate Driver family heirloom and Civil War–era relic. The Roland Old
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Mary Jane Roland, Driver's daughter, said Driver gave her the flag as a gift on July 10, 1873, telling her, "This is my old ship flag Old Glory. I love it as a mother loves her child. Take it and cherish it as I have always cherished it; for it has been my steadfast friend and protector in all parts
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Driver was deeply attached to the flag, writing: "It has ever been my staunch companion and protection. Savages and heathens, lowly and oppressed, hailed and welcomed it at the far end of the wide world. Then, why should it not be called Old Glory?"
144:. In 1831, while voyaging in the South Pacific, Driver's ship "was the sole surviving vessel of six that departed Salem the same day." In Tahiti, where they withdrew because of illness, Driver picked up the 65 descendants of the mutineers of
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Following Driver's death, a family feud erupted over the ownership of the flag. Driver's niece, Harriet Ruth Waters Cooke, the daughter of Driver's youngest sister, said she inherited the flag and presented her version of Old Glory to the
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In 2019, Captain Driver's great-great grandson, Jack Benz, published a novel depicting the life and adventures of
Captain William Driver using information collected from personal research and inherited from Captain Driver's descendants.
252:, Driver had brought the coverlet with him and with a pocket knife ripped open the seams, revealing the flag. Nelson accepted the flag and ordered it run up on the Capitol flagstaff. The 6th Ohio later adopted the motto "Old Glory."
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That night, a violent storm threatened to tear the flag, so Driver replaced it with a newer flag, taking the original Old Glory for safekeeping. The flag remained in his home until
December 1864, when the
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in 1918. In that memoir, Roland disputed Cooke's narrative. She presented evidence for her claim that the flag she owned was the true Old Glory. In 1922, Roland gave her Old Glory to
President
248:, described Driver as "a stout, middle-aged man, with hair well shot with gray, short in stature, broad in shoulder, and with a roll in his gait." Introducing himself as a sea captain and
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in
Nashville for an eight-month exhibit entitled "Old Glory: An American Treasure Comes Home". The flag was in fragile condition and had to be carefully shipped and displayed.
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The 24-star variant of the flag, which was the national flag at the time of Driver's voyage and the first US flag to be called 'Old Glory', a term Driver coined in 1831.
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in the lower right corner to symbolize his maritime career. By that time, the secession crisis had begun, and Driver's family was split. While Driver was a staunch
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suggests it was the one hidden in the quilt and presented to Union troops who took
Nashville. The Roland flag is 17Ă—10 feet. The Peabody flag is 12Ă—6 feet.
207:. An armed group returned to Driver's front porch, who refused to produce the flag, saying "If you want my flag you'll have to take it over my dead body."
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189:. In March 1862, Driver wrote: "Two sons in the army of the South! My entire house estranged . . . and when I come home . . . no one to soothe me."
155:(a noteworthy act that helped publicize Driver's nickname for the flag). Driver was convinced that God saved his ship to rescue the islanders.
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sought to retake the city, Driver hung the flag out of the third-story window and left to join the city's defense. For the rest of the
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sent men to Driver's home to demand the flag. Driver, 58 years old, turned the men away at his door after demanding they produce a
185:, two of his sons were fervent Confederates who enlisted in local regiments. One of Driver's sons died from wounds suffered at
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The Grave marker of sea captain
William Driver, who coined the "Old Glory" nickname in reference to his own oceangoing flag.
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69:. In 1922, Driver's daughter and niece claimed to own the original "Old Glory", which became part of the collection of the
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The
Smithsonian Institution has regarded the Roland flag as the authentic Old Glory, since "documentary evidence in the
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In 1860, Driver, his wife, and daughters repaired the flag, sewing on ten additional stars. Driver added by
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To save the flag from further threats, Driver and some of his
Unionist neighbors secretly sewed it into a
57:(March 17, 1803 – March 3, 1886). He flew the flag during his career at sea and later brought it to
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The
Peabody Essex Museum has in its collection fragmentary scraps from what was claimed to be Old Glory.
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In June 2006, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History (NMAH) loaned the Roland flag to the
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From Salem to Nashville OLD GLORY: The Life and Times of Patriot Captain William Driver
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Driver retired from seafaring in 1837 after his wife Martha Silsbee Babbage died from
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Glory is heavily worn on the fly edges, consistent with the wear of a seagoing flag.
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61:, where he settled. Driver greatly prized the flag and ensured its safety from the
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318:. The same year, the Peabody Essex Museum sent its Old Glory to the Smithsonian.
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The flag in 1860 after it was sewn with ten more stars including an anchor.
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for users with library access, otherwise a paid subscription is necessary.
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50:. The original "Old Glory" was a flag owned by the 19th-century American
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raised on the Capitol flagstaffand asked to see the general in command.
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541:"Old Glory returns here for eight-month stay at Tennessee State Museum"
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a family memoir in 1889, omitting any mention of Mary Jane Roland.
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214:. The flag was thus hidden until February 1862, when Nashville
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The original "Old Glory" owned by sea captain William Driver
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was fought. As Confederate troopers under the command of
26:"William Driver" redirects here. For other people, see
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Captain William Driver was born on March 17, 1803, in
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Driver died on March 3, 1886, and was buried in the
113:. At age 13, Driver ran away from home to become a
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344:A conservation evaluation of both flags by NMAH
306:Roland wrote an account of the flag, publishing
283:, where, at Driver's request, his rescue of the
136:, and the South Pacific. He participated in the
395:. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company. p. 92.
230:after seeing the U.S. flag, and the 6th Ohio's
464:Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture
276:of the world—savage, heathen and civilized."
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511:Benz, Jack; Williams, Garrett (2019).
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332:Tennessee State Library and Archives
272:of Nashville, serving in hospitals.
241:to the Union commander in the city,
614:Tennessee in the American Civil War
538:Bostick, Alan (February 14, 2006).
482:, Associated Press (June 14, 2006).
314:. Harding had the flag sent to the
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75:National Museum of American History
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495:Raising of the Original Old Glory
194:Tennessee seceded from the Union
609:History of Nashville, Tennessee
466:(last updated January 1, 2010).
28:William Driver (disambiguation)
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120:At 21, Driver qualified as a
517:. Nashville, TN: Jack Benz.
170:of Christ Episcopal Church.
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392:The Little Book of the Flag
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599:Flags of the United States
579:Smithsonian Old Glory page
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21:Old Glory (disambiguation)
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367:Flag of the United States
308:Old Glory, The True Story
151:and brought them back to
48:flag of the United States
548:. Nashville. p. B1
316:Smithsonian Institution
281:Nashville City Cemetery
228:Tennessee state capitol
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440:Smithsonian Magazine
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216:fell to Union forces
140:trade and knew some
111:Salem, Massachusetts
59:Nashville, Tennessee
19:For other uses, see
389:March, Eva (1917).
268:, Driver served as
258:Battle of Nashville
237:Horace Fisher, the
266:American Civil War
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67:American Civil War
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243:Brigadier General
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218:. When the
192:Soon after
117:on a ship.
52:sea captain
588:Categories
501:, Vol. 47.
373:References
220:Union Army
187:Perryville
301:published
168:vestryman
134:Gibraltar
115:cabin boy
44:Old Glory
356:See also
250:Unionist
212:coverlet
198:Governor
183:Unionist
175:appliqué
552:May 29,
346:curator
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285:Bounty
179:anchor
148:Bounty
142:Fijian
554:2019
519:ISBN
146:HMS
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
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