Joseph G. Crane (died June 8, 1869[1]) was a Union Army breveted colonel who was the appointed mayor of Jackson, Mississippi.
Crane was killed by stabbing[2] on the capitol steps by Edward M. Yerger, a former Confederate Army officer who owned a newspaper,[3] the Evening Journal in Baltimore.
[4] Under Crane’s authority a piano had been seized from Yerger’s family to satisfy a tax assessment.
[5] After military officials arrested his assailant, a writ of Habeas corpus was filed and eventually appealed in the Ex parte Yerger case in the U.S. Supreme Court.
[3] After the Justices decision, a deal was made and he was released to civil authorities, bonded out, and moved to Baltimore, Maryland.