R. Todd Cranson is Director of the 10th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry Band. When not portraying a Civil War Era persona, Todd is director of the Band and Orchestra at the University of Illinois, Springfield and works in a number of capacities to help build the young music department at UIS. He is also an active tubist performing with an assortment of local bands, presenting recitals, and working with two creative new chamber ensembles.

Before moving to Springfield in the Fall of 2005, Todd spent a year in Manchester, England where he earned his Post Graduate Diploma with distinction in performance from the Royal Northern College of Music as a tuba student of Roger Bobo and James Gourlay. From 1999 to 2004 Todd worked as Director of Bands at Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero, LA. In 1999 he received his master of music degree in instrumental conducting from the University of Arkansas, and he received his bachelor of music and bachelor of music education degrees with honors in 1997 from Louisiana State University.

As he leads the 10th Illinois Volunteer Cavalry Band, Captain Todd Cranson wields the very baton used by the leader of the 2nd Iowa Cavalry Band which frequently performed for President Abraham Lincoln. After a century on hiatus, the baton continues to serve a Cavalry band in Lincoln's home town of Springfield, Illinois. In the hands of Captain Cranson, the baton's legacy helps recreate the musical performances of an authentic Civil War Cavalry Band. The heavy baton is constructed of polished ebony inlaid with silver detail. The original leather case is custom fit with the inscription "2nd Iowa Cav" scratched into the leather.