Alvin Millen Crane/Crain was a resident of Mansfield on August 7, 1862 when he enlisted as a 2nd Lieutenant in Co. D of the 21st Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant July 31, 1863 and to Captain, October 12, 1864. Alvin Crane was wounded May 16, 1864 at Drewry’s Bluff, Virginia and was mustered out June 16, 1865.
The descriptive muster roll of the 21st Regiment Connecticut Volunteer Infantry lists his age as 23 and his occupation as student. He is described as 5’ 9” tall with a fair complexion and dark hair and eyes. His marital status is single.
He was born August 3, 1839 in Mansfield to Millen and Sally (Bennett) Crain/Crane. In the 1860 U.S. census in Mansfield, he is a 20 year old farmer in the household of Millen Crane. After the Civil War, he attended Brown University, graduating in 1869 and then he went to Newton Theological Seminary in Newton, Massachusetts, graduating in 1872. He became a Baptist minister and served in the following Massachusetts towns: Medfield, West Boylston, Shelburne Falls, Millbury, Groton and Everett. Alvin Crane married Sarah G. Adams on July 13, 1869 in Mansfield. They had one child, Judson Adams Crane, born May 7, 1884 in Shelburne, Massachusetts; Sarah G. (Adams) Crane died four days later, on May 11, 1884. Alvin married, second, Sarah Jane Wilson on October 20, 1885 in Boston, Massachusetts; they had no children.
Alvin Crane was the historian of the 21st Regimental Association and one of the three captains on the executive committee that worked on the writing and publication of the regimental history.
On May 11, 1904, he applied for an invalid pension, No. 1,315,556 that was granted under certificate No. 1,085,219.
Alvin M. Crane died on April 22, 1922 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania according to pension records; his burial place is not known.