Civil War Union Army Officer. When the Civil War began in April 1861 he enlisted in the Union Army, and was commissioned as a 1st Lieutenant in Company A, 7th Ohio (Three-Month) Volunteer Infantry. Promoted Captain on May 14, 1861, when the 7th Ohio was re-organized as a Three-Year enlistment regiment in June 1861, he retained the Captaincy of Company A. He served in this duty through the regiment’s participation in the March 23, 1862 First Battle of Kernstown, Virginia, and then was promoted to Major on May 25, 1862. He then fought in the August 9, 1862 Battle of Cedar Mountain, Virginia, and assumed command of the regiment after Colonel William R. Creighton was severely wounded. Major Crane led the unit through the September 1862 Antietam Campaign, and at the Battle of Antietam led first his regiment, then his whole brigade as it found around the Dunker Church and East Woods area. After Colonel Creighton’s return, Orrin J. Crane was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel on October 6, 1862. He was with his men through the May 1863 Chancellorsville Campaign, the July 1863 Battle of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (where the 7th Ohio Infantry fought on Culp’s Hill), and the movement south when the XXII Army Corps was transferred to the Union’s Army of the Cumberland. He was again in command of the regiment at the November 27, 1863 Battle of Ringgold’s Gap, Georgia, while Colonel Creighton commanded the brigade. Leading his men on a charge on the entrenched Confederates on Taylor’s Ridge, Lieutenant Colonel; Crane was killed near the top of the summit. Colonel Creighton tried to retrieve the body, but failed and was mortally wounded himself. Both Colonel Crane's and Lieutenant Colonel Creighton's bodies were returned to Cleveland, Ohio where they lay in state at City Hall on December 7 and 8, 1863. Thousands of Clevelanders lined the streets for the funeral procession. They were temporarily placed in the Bradburn Family Vault in Erie Street Cemetery. In July 1864, both were buried, side by side, in Woodland Cemetery.