See the flag that flew around the world

Tennessee State Museum welcomes William Driver's Old Glory back to city where it became a legend

By ALAN BOSTICK, Staff Writer

Come near, young and old, for a tale of high seas exploits and wartime intrigue from days gone by. Let's call it — A Man and His Flag:

Once there was a brave young sea captain who twice sailed around the world aboard an early 19th-century brig. With the U.S. flag his mother had given him flapping high aloft as his ''companion and protection,'' he overcame rough seas and other hardships. In the South Pacific he transported survivors of the infamous mutiny on the Bounty from Tahiti back to their home island. Later he settled in Nashville, where he often flew that tattered old banner outside his house in honor of his country.

When Confederate partisans threatened to confiscate his flag in the early days of the Civil War, the retired captain had it concealed inside a bed quilt. Later, he watched in triumph as that flag, brought out of hiding, fluttered above the state Capitol; he spent that windy winter night outdoors to make sure it came to no harm.

This is no children's story, though it has many of the required elements. It's drawn from the remarkable life of Salem, Mass.-born William Driver, who, along with the flag he famously nicknamed Old Glory, is the focus of a major new exhibition at the Tennessee State Museum.

As part of a unique once-only arrangement, the museum arranged to bring the huge, age-faded flag back to Nashville from the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History in Washington. Given Driver's lengthy Nashville association, it's billed as an eight-month ''homecoming'' for Old Glory.

Along with the Star-Spangled Banner — which inspired Francis Scott Key to pen our national anthem and is not in this show — Old Glory is one of two American flags especially rich with history, according to Lois Riggins-Ezzell, the museum's executive director.

''They go hand-in-hand as relics of our heroic past,'' she said.

Museum curator Dan Pomeroy, who helped organize the show, found himself impressed by Driver.

''I don't use the word 'heroic' lightly,'' the curator said, referring to Driver's courage in exhibiting and then protecting his flag in time of war. ''He put himself on the line to stand by the Union.''

Driver, who lived 1803-1886, lies buried at the old Nashville City Cemetery off Fourth Avenue South. There, on a recent early spring morning, three area men, all convinced that they are Driver descendants, gathered: Billy Benz and Jack Benz, brothers from Goodlettsville in their 70s, and Michael Moore, 38, of Franklin.

The brothers have determined that they are great-great-grandsons of Driver, while Moore believes he's a great-great-great-grandson.

Inspecting Driver's unusual grave marker, which features an anchor attached to an ivy-covered tree trunk and which he's said to have designed himself, the trio went over what they knew about their common ancestor.

It's a biography that's plagued in parts by vagueness.

Most of what still connects these men to Driver are yellowing newspaper clippings, handed-down family stories and, in the case of the Benz brothers, an old family Bible. There's also their common admiration for the man.

Interestingly, each descendant is fascinated by a different side of Driver's story.

''This guy packed a lot of life in,'' said Moore, who works in medical sales. ''I think the story about raising the flag above the Capitol is probably the neatest part.''

For Billy Benz, 78, a semi-retired insurance man, it's Driver's personal generosity that stands out. This Benz brother, incidentally, has a particularly strong physical resemblance to Driver, judging from the latter's oil portrait in the state museum show.

''I like the fact he was such a good Samaritan, so unselfish,'' Billy Benz said. ''He was willing to face a great deal of danger to go in and help people.'' Benz had in mind Driver's assistance to the Bounty survivors, who desperately wanted to leave Tahiti and return to the Pitcairn Islands, where they felt they had a better chance for a healthier, happier existence.

Jack Benz, 73, who also worked many years in insurance, has been a serious sailing enthusiast for decades. For him, it's Driver-as-sea-captain that most appeals.

''He sailed around the world two times and around Australia once. As a sailor, I know what that means,'' he said. ''When you cross the ocean and sail in the waters he sailed in, that is an outstanding feat.''

Jack Benz cited an entry in Driver's handwritten ship's log — also displayed in the state museum show — that speaks of ''strong gales'' and ''a very ugly sea'' soon after his first departure from Salem, with Old Glory on board, in early 1831.

''I've sailed in 30-40-mile-per-hour winds, and it's survival of the fittest,'' Jack Benz said. ''I'm proud to say he has accomplished those things.''

Growing up in the east Nashville area, the Benz brothers were educated early on by older family members about their connection to Driver.

Moore of Franklin, who grew up in Connecticut, recalled seeing the flag at the Smithsonian in Washington during a school trip. Despite the family link, he admits ''we were all more interested in Fonzie's jacket,'' referring, of course, to the black leather jacket worn by Henry Winkler in the TV sitcom Happy Days.

Since 9/11, the flag ''has meant more'' to Moore. ''You might say the colors of the flag have become more noticeable and more bold.''

Moore's immediate family, who also live near Nashville, add to this area's small group of Driver descendants. Moore also has three young daughters and plans to introduce that next generation to the exhibit highlighting their forebear.

Lacking a formal means of keeping in touch, the exact number of Driver relatives here is unknown. Moore had never met the Benz brothers until news of this show brought them together.

Despite Old Glory's fame — or perhaps because of it — there is considerable misinformation circulating about the flag and the man who owned it.

That has recently made life particularly challenging for Pomeroy, the museum curator.

''I never expected to find it so difficult to try to nail down elementary dates and places,'' the curator said. Over the years ''there were just vague things said that led to wrong dates and wrong stories.''

Consider some of the most basic elements of the Driver story.

It has been maintained, for instance, that Old Glory was eaten by a mule; another tradition holds that it was stolen from the cupola of the State Capitol.

The date on which Driver was given the flag by his mother and ''the girls of Salem, Mass.,'' is not precisely known. Driver himself says he received it on his birthday, but he doesn't say which birthday. The most likely date, Pomeroy said, is 1824, when Driver turned 21. But various dates in 1831 — the year he actually set sail on the Charles Doggett — are also in the tradition.

There's also much confusion over the famous incident of the flag's concealment as the Civil War approached. One oddity is that Driver appears to have taken it next door to the Bailey family's house so the ''two Bailey girls'' could sew it into the quilt. Why did Driver not leave that to his daughter and wife? It's also unclear whether or for how long he kept the quilt-covered flag in his attic or on his bed, or perhaps in both places.

One outcome of this show, Pomeroy hopes, will be setting the record more straight. He sought to weed the fact from fiction, sort through assorted yarns to produce what now will stand, for the foreseeable future, as the definitive version of events.

Pomeroy quoted Winston Churchill's line that ''historians ruin history.'' The curator hopes that he's one historian who, at least in the case of Old Glory, comes to history's rescue.