William T. Crane (active 1861-1865)
Throughout the Civil War, Crane worked as a “special artist” for Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper, which published 244 of his drawings. In addition, under orders from General Quincy A. Gilmore, Crane drew a series of sequential views of Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor in the summer of 1863 depicting the stages of the fort’s demolition during a prolonged Union bombardment. General Gilmore included these detailed and shocking drawings in his final report to the War Department on these operations, later reproduced in the government’s Official Records, Volume 28, Part 1. The Becker Collection contains drawings done by Crane in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida between 1861 and 1865. See works by this artist.