#Old glory close call mission extreme landings driver#
Driver famously told the Confederates, “If you want my flag, you’ll have to take it over my dead body.” The nation was rapidly expanding during this time and, in 1860, Driver sewed 10 more stars onto his flag, along with a small white anchor in the lower right-hand corner to symbolize his nautical career.ĭriver, who remained a loyal Unionist during the Civil War, stood up to a group of Confederate soldiers who came to his front door and ordered him to turn over Old Glory. Driver attached the flag to a rope from his attic window, stretched it across the street on a pulley and secured it to a locust tree. It was no surprise that Driver brought along Old Glory to his new Southern home. In 1837, Driver and his three young children moved to Nashville, Tenn., where the retired captain remarried and had several more children. Then, why should it not be called Old Glory?”ĭriver cut his seafaring career short when his first wife took ill and died from throat cancer. Savages and heathens, lowly and oppressed, hailed and welcomed it at the far end of the wide world. As Driver once wrote, “It has ever been my staunch companion and protection. During his 20-year career, Driver earned acclaim for steering the ship out of danger during severe storms, staring down a hostile New Zealand tribal chief and picking up 65 descendants of survivors of the HMS Bounty.Īlways flying high above Driver’s ship was his favorite flag, which he soon named Old Glory. To commemorate this special occasion, Driver’s mother and several female admirers sewed a 24-star American flag and presented it as a gift to the young captain. assumed command of his own ship, the Charles Doggett, and prepared for the first of many voyages that would take him to faraway places such as China, India and the South Pacific. In 1824, William Driver - a merchant seaman from Salem, Mass. Old Glory is the story of one man’s devotion to a national treasure and an inspiring example for all Americans who revere their flag. The original Old Glory survived turbulent seafaring expeditions, toughed out a search-and-destroy mission by the Confederate army, and even withstood a bitter family feud.
You may think ‘Old Glory’ is just a fun nickname for the United States flag, but the term once referred to one very speciall 19th century American Flag with quite the story.
0 kommentar(er)
