Crane, Albert Abijah
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MILITARY SERVICE Age: 24, credited to Bridport, VT Unit(s): 6th VT INF Service: enl 10/3/61, m/i 10/15/61, SGT, Co. A, 6th VT INF, comn 2LT, 8/21/62 (9/15/62), pr CPT, 11/1/62 (11/1/62), kia, Wilderness, 5/5/64 [College: MC 63] See Legend for expansion of abbreviations VITALSBirth: 12/13/1836, Bridport, VT Death: 05/05/1864 Burial: Fredericksburg National Cemetery, Fredericksburg, VA Marker/Plot: 1119 Gravestone photographer: Tom Ledoux Findagrave Memorial #: 12717358 Cenotaph: Central Cemetery, Bridport, VT Marker/Plot: Gravestone researcher/photographer: Alan Lathrop Findagrave Memorial #: 44755091 MORE INFORMATION Alias?: None noted Pension?: Not Found Portrait?: Davis Collection College?: MC 63 Veterans Home?: Not Found (If there are state digraphs above, this soldier spent some time in a state or national soldiers' home in that state after the war) Remarks: None DESCENDANTS 2nd Great Granduncle of John P. Kinghorn, Essex, VT (Are you a descendant, but not listed? Register today) |
BURIAL: Copyright notice  Fredericksburg National Cemetery, VA Check the cemetery for location/directions and other veterans who may be buried there. CENOTAPH:  Cenotaph in Central Cemetery, Bridport, VT Check the cemetery for location/directions and other veterans who may have cenotaphs there. |
Obituary
Lt. Albert A. Crane
First Lieutenant Albert A. Crane, Co. A, 6th Vermont Volunteers, fell in battle Thursday morning, May 2, instantly killed by a shot through he head. He was buried on the field, - fitting place for a soldiers' grave.
Lt. Crane, the son of Jesse Crane of Bridport, was born upon his father's farm December, 1836. Being the eldest son, intelligent and strong, his father had destined him to a farmer's life, and had depended upon him for care and companionship in old age. He remained upon the farm until the fall after he was seventeen, when he entered Barre Academy. After one term of study and another of teaching he returned home. His father now saw his mistake in letting the boy get such a taste of the waters of knowledge. The boy's ambition was thoroughly aroused and his mind made up. Nothing but a liberal education would satisfy him. Reasoning, persuasion, and almost command were of no use against his determination. With various interruptions he pursued his studies at Bristol and Barre and entered the Freshman class of Middlebury College in the fall of 1859 with the writer of this article.
It was with high purpose and stimulated hopes that he applied himself to college duties and privileges. He was thirsty and drank deeply. No time was lost, no tasks slighted. He at once took and kept one of the leading positions in his class. At this time, I think, his reading was more extensive and better digested, his judgment maturer, his estimate of a college course truer, than that of a majority of his classmates. His quiet exterior did not show this, but the discussion of a favorite author, of a political or social question, at once revealed his pleasant wit, keen discrimination and deft reasoning. Nothing conquered his good humor. No hasty word, no ungentlemanly act ever called for an apology. He was true metal; staunch in principle, firm and straight forward in daily life. He always stood out boldly in war of words as he did afterwards in war of bullets, and that too with an underlayer of fine feeling and esthetic perception which sweetened and adorned the whole man.
The stirring events of the spring of 1861 interested him deeply. In his quiet retreat he chafed like a tied warhorse and finally broke halter and enlisted in his Junior fall, 1861. "The army needs thoughtful, interested men," said he. "Do you suppose regiments of college boys would have retreated so a t Bull Run?" He entered the company as a sergeant and in little more than a year had risen to the first lieutenancy. From the engagements at Lee's Mills onward to his last battle, he was never absent form an engagement in which his regiment shared. Those who knew the unflinching grain of his character need not be told that he was brave. He pursued his studies in camp, and wrote much of the mental work he was doing and purposed to do. Not unfrequently his signature, "A.A.C." was found under a letter from camp in the Rutland Herald.
Nobel, gentle-hearted, large-minded fellow! Filling the most honorable of graves at the early age of twenty-seven. Proud tears are shed for him, and in reading the roll of glorious dead the eye of friendship dwells fondly upon his name, and the firm belief arises that no happier soul shall rise through all the possible, and eternal growth of finite being than he who offers self for Principle and life for Country.
Source: Vermont Record, May 20, 1864
Courtesy of Tom Boudreau.