[Union Army - Christian Commission] - Crane, Theodore F

47 pages (207 x 172 mm), mostly written recto and verso; a few pencil corrections. Contemporary calf-backed marbled boards; worn. 

Crane joined the Christian Commission on April 7, 1865 and headed north to join General Sherman's army, where he was assigned to be the assistant of the famous volunteer war nurse Mary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke, the only woman allowed in General Sherman's camp. The present journal contains some wonderful descriptions and accounts of her, "She [Bickerdyke] is a regular "go-a-head-a-tive" piece, and a very prominent character in the army". Includes a delightful anecdote about her making General William Rosencrantz stir gruel to keep it from burning - and her retort when informed that he was a general: "'Well, I don't care if it is Abe Lincoln, don't you let that gruel burn!'" Includes, among many other topics, Crane's account of taking the USS Gazelle up to Roanoke Island, and his account of the funeral procession of President Lincoln:  "I was mustered (together with other del[egate]s) to join the funeral procession of President Lincoln, but feeling tired and [illegible] I contented myself to look at the procession as it passed. It was the grandest sight I ever witnessed....[I] went to the house where Lincoln was carried after receiving the fatal shot (& died) and there saw the bed on which he died. I secured a piece of the pillow case on which his head rested for the last time. It is slightly stained with his blood."