rland steamed fifteen transports and one gunboat--General
Nelson's wing of the Union army. From the levee came the clamor and
shouts of men, the rattle of musketry, and din of many feet. The Sixth
Ohio was the first regiment to land. Captain Driver was an interested
observer of the scene. "Now," said he, "hath the hour of Old Glory
come!"

Lieutenant Thacher, of the Sixth, with a squad of soldiers, left the
regiment and escorted Captain Driver to his home, a few blocks distant.
They wrested Old Glory from its hiding place and, with the old mariner
bearing the flag in his arms, quickly rejoined the regiment.

Up the hill, amidst rattle of drum and sounding trumpets, passed the
bluecoats to the Capitol. There a small regimental flag was being
hoisted. Suddenly a hush fell upon the waiting victors. The figure of
Captain Driver appeared high against the dome of the Statehouse. The
strains of "The Star-Spangled Banner" burst upon the ear; and amid
cheers and cries of "Old Glory! Old Glory!" that echoed to the distant
hills the old sea flag unfurled and floated above the topmost pinnacle
of the Capitol of Tennessee. And thus Old Glory received her formal
christening.

[Illustration: AMID CHEERS AND CRIES OF "OLD GLORY! OLD GLORY!" THAT
ECHOED TO THE DISTANT HILLS THE OLD SEA FLAG UNFURLED AND FLOATED
ABOVE THE TOPMOST PINNACLE OF THE CAPITOL OF TENNESSEE.]

Swarming over the city, bent on various quests, went the victorious
Federals. Not so the old sailor. The revered flag, flaunting the colors
so joyously above his head once more, was far too weather-beaten, he
feared, to withstand long the stiff breeze blowing about the elevated
site. Torn to ribbons it must not be, howsoever good the cause.

Quietly he watched and waited about the grounds until after nightfall,
when, under cover of the darkness, he again ascended the dome, rescued
his beloved old flag, and swung in its place a big merino one that had
figured as a campaign flag in 1840, when "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" was
the slogan of the Whig Party. He then carried Old Glory to his home and
laid it tenderly away in the old sea locker so long dedicated to its
use.

Very gradually thereafter the pleasing appellation, Old Glory, made its
impress upon the speech of the populace, until, in the later nineties,
the "Hoosier Poet" was moved to expression in verse:

Old Glory, the story we're wanting to hear,
Is what the plain facts of your christening were,