John Cochrane (general)

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John Cochrane (August 27, 1813 Palatine, Montgomery County, New York - February 7, 1898 Manhattan, New York City) was an American lawyer, Union Army general and politician.

[edit] Life

He was the grandson of John Cochran, Surgeon General of the Continental Army.

He studied first at Union College, but then graduated from Hamilton College in 1831. Afterwards he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1834, and practiced in Oswego and Schenectady, and then moved to New York City.

In 1852, he campaigned for Franklin Pierce who appointed him Surveyor of the Port of New York in 1853. He was a Democratic member of the 35th and 36th United States Congresses, serving from 1857 to 1861, where he took a prominent part in the debates on land reform, revenue, and other public questions.

At the outbreak of the American Civil War he became a colonel of the First United States Chasseurs, which he commanded in the Peninsular Campaign. In July 1862, he was brevetted brigadier general of volunteers, but resigned his commission in June 1863 on account of failing health.

He was New York State Attorney General from 1864 to 1865, elected on the ticket which was nominated by the Union State Convention including Republicans and Northern Democrats.

In 1864, he was nominated by the Radical Republicans for the vice-presidency on the ticket with John C. Frémont, but Frémont soon withdrew. He was a delegate to the 1868 Republican National Convention.

As leader of the New York delegation to the Liberal Republican Convention at Cincinnati in 1872, he was instrumental in securing the nomination of Horace Greeley for the presidency.

Afterwards he became a Democrat again, and was elected a Sachem of Tammany Hall. In 1872 and 1873, he was President of the Common Council of New York City. As such he was Acting Mayor of New York when Mayor A. Oakley Hall temporarily retired during the Tweed investigation.

He died at his home at 7 East Sixty-Second Street in Manhattan, and was buried at Albany Rural Cemetery in Menands, New York.

He was a member of the Society of the Cincinnati.

[edit] Sources

• This article incorporates text from an edition of the New International Encyclopedia that is in the public domain.
• John Cochrane (general) at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• [1] His nomination for NYSAG, in NYT on September 16, 1863
• [2] Political Graveyard
• [3] His obit in NYT on February 9, 1898
• [4] List of New York Attorneys General, at Office of the NYSAG