Printed broadside. 29.5x23.5 cm (11¾x9¼").
Very rare broadside of a song in sixteen stanzas, concerning Major General Elijah Crane's division of the Massachusetts militia; first lines: "Our Norfolk troops can march with ease/ up to old Dedham plain;/ And there I think that we shall please/ Our Major General CRANE/ And to Dedham we'll all go..." OCLC/WorldCat lists only two copies, at the American Antiquarian Society and the Peabody Essex Museum. The copy held by the American Antiquarian Society is inscribed in a contemporary hand: "About the year 1817 at Norfolk County." That copy is trimmed to 20.5x16.1 cm - the present example is untrimmed, with ragged edges.
John Crane (1744-1805) was a soldier in the French and Indian War, the American Revolutionary War, and a participant in the Boston Tea Party. He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts. Before the Boston Tea Party actually began, the disguised men met at Crane’s home to discuss the night’s events. Crane was the only American harmed in the Boston Tea Party, being knocked unconscious by a falling crate of tea. Crane moved to Providence, Rhode Island, in 1774 because the Boston Port Bill harmed his business. Soon after, he was commissioned as a major in the United Train of Artillery (UTA) of the Rhode Island Militia.
After war began at the battles of Lexington and Concord in April 1775, he joined the siege of Boston as captain of the artillery company from Rhode Island, which was part of Gridley's Regiment of Massachusetts Artillery and saw action at the Battle of Bunker Hill in June 1775.
On December 10, 1775, he was commissioned in the Continental Army as the major of the artillery regiment commanded by Colonel Henry Knox. On September 14, 1776 he was wounded in action at Corlaer's Hook. On January 1, 1777 Crane was promoted to colonel and given command of the 3rd Continental Artillery Regiment. He served in that position for the duration of the war, and his regiment saw much action.
In June 1783 Crane was appointed commander of the newly formed Corps of Artillery, succeeding Knox as the head of American artillery forces. He received a brevet promotion to brigadier general in September 1783, but he resigned from the army less than two months later.