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Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech
Special Collections and University Archives, University Libraries (0434)Special Collections and University Archives Staff
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The collection is open to research.
Transcripts of the letters are available.
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: [identification of item], [box], [folder], Cochran Family Letters, Ms1992-032, Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va.
The Cochran Family Letters were purchased by Special Collections in May 1992.
The processing, arrangement, and description of the Cochran Family Letters commenced and was completed in 1992.
Before the American Civil War, John H. Cochran was involved in the tobacco business in Richmond, Virginia. When the war began he served as a private in Company A of the Wise Legion and later in the 46th Regiment Virginia Infantry. He was captured with most of his legion at Roanoke Island, North Carolina, on February 8, 1862. After parole he continued to serve throughout the war until he was killed in action on July 21, 1864.
Benjamin Franklin Cochran ("Frank") was a private in Company E of the 1st Virginia Cavalry. He enlisted in Waynesboro on May 2, 1861, and was discharged for ill health on December 6, 1861. He died in Bosque County, Texas, in 1893.
The Cochran Family Letters consist of fourteen letters written in 1860 and 1861 by brothers John H. and Benjamin Franklin ("Frank") Cochran of Augusta County, Virginia.
The letters from John H. Cochran, written primarily during the period between the election of Abraham Lincoln to the attack on Fort Sumter, show his intense interest in and gives a clear picture of the events that happened immediately before the start of the Civil War. All of his and Frank's letters were written to their mother in Augusta County, Virginia. The collection also includes one letter from a cousin, A.G. Gastins of South Carolina, to John and Benjamin Cochran's father.
The collection is arranged chronologically.
The guide to the Cochran Family Letters by Special Collections and University Archives, Virginia Tech, is licensed under a CC0 ( https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/public-domain/cc0/ ).
Describes his feelings about the charges that his party is one of disunionists and believes that "the government is not solely the government of a majority but that the minority have rights that must be respected."
Writes that "the country is now in a fearful state of agitation. so much so that thinking men believe that war between the sections is iminent." Comments on South Carolina's secession from the Union.
"There is nothing talked about here but that all absorbing subject secession. South Carolina has gloriously vindicated her honor..."
"My dear Cousin...You have heard long before this that S. Carolina has seceded every person in the State shouts glory to God + I say Amen...S. Carolina has fifty thousand ready at this time to march any whare they may be kneeded..."
"...We have nothing new from Charlestown to night. But I expect there will be stiring times there in a day or two. I think it more than probably the Star of the West is in the offing waiting for the Brooklyn who will take the troops on board and attempt to foarce a passage to Sumpter..."
"...You ask if things do not look more like peace I think not the air is redolant with the fumes of powder and I believe we will have war with the North in less than sixty days. If Virginia refuses to go out there will be a revolution in this state..."
Writes that if the peace conference's report is adopted then "will come dishonor, disgrace and repudiation. Then will the fair land be polluted with the presence of hoards of yankees and other such like vermin..." He believes that there is "but one way to avert such dire calamities to the old commonwealth and that is by revolution."
"...I again reiterate my prediction that the eastern part of the state will rise in revolt against the western and will yet achieve its independence even though the rivers run in blood..."Also writes that business is stagnant and that a friend has been advised by H. A. Wise "not to engage in any sort of business as yet as he thought that pecuniary affairs would receive even a greater blow than any which has yet convulsed the country."
"If I go south it will be for the double purpose of taking up arms and of attending to the business connected with my grandfather's estate...news of the surrender of fort Sumpter was received here yesterday after a bombardment of nearly thirty hours...we fired a salute of one hundred guns in honor of the victory on the square under the very noses of the Traitors to the state...after which we hoisted the flag of the Confederated States upon the capitol..."
"We are stationed here between two batteries for the purpose of defending either in case of attack. We are now upon the extreme boundary of the Southern Confederacy with nothing to divide us from the Black Republican despotism but the broad waters of the Potomac. How I wish that we were on the other side and in full march upon Washington."
Asks her to send him some of the flash powder that John sent earlier from Richmond.
Expects a fight soon; had skirmishes at Honeywood Mills while they were working to blow up a dam.
His company was transferred to the Wise Legion and they would be mustered into service for the war that evening. Getting ready to fight in the North West.
Caught two of the enemy last week, a lieutenant colonel and an officer. Wants her to send him his gun.