The Indian Territory in the Civil War Message Board

Cochrans

Regarding Cochran's (the location of Robert L. Cochran's Store and Trading Post) just west of the Dragoon Trail Crossing of Clear Boggy in 1864, my assessment of local historical folklore is that:

1. Robert L. Cochran was shot and killed by Federal cavalry (14th Kansas) in front of his house or store on February 13 or 14, 1864. I tend to think his family had already evacuated their house (as it was not burned), and he as postmaster and owner of the "trading post" had his posts to defend--alone. A brave Georgian choose not to flee. Perhaps he briefly thought the Feds would remember the aid he had given to Lt. Averill at Cochrans at the start of the war.

2. Robert L. Cochran is buried in Cochran's Cemetery behind his house at Cochrans.

3. One (or more) of his wives is buried with him.

4. Robert L. Cochran is not buried with his older brother A.O. Cochran or cousin W.L. at Frisco Cemetery.

5. Phillips cavalry raid on Cochran's Store was the site of Camp Kagi on the night of February 14, 1864.

6. During the day of February 14 or February 15, Col. Phillips mounted command burned:

a. Cochran's Store and Trading Post,

b. Pontotoc County (Chickasaw) Court House (probably located next to Cochran's Store),

c. Pontotoc Post Office (probably at Cochran's Store),

d. Colbert Institute (Gov. Winchester Colbert's pride and joy),

e. Gov. Winchester Colbert's nearby "summer" plantation home.

With all of the leaders of Cochrans dead or gone (Gov. Colbert, Lt. Col. John Jumper and Capt. Jonathan Nail had all fled south with all of the remaining Confederates), and with all Confederate buildings burned, little facility was left to show or tell the story of what happened to Cochrans. Much like Perryville. Phillips left few historical tracks at Cochrans that a good rain wouldn't wash away.

My conclusion is that "Cochrans" did not move east a short distance across Clear Boggy to "old Stonewall/now Frisco" after the war. There was nothing left to move (perhaps only widow Cochran's house, and it probably was never moved). By the time "old Stonewall" got well established in 1873, following the large Texas cattle drives passing thru after the war along the newly renamed "Texas Cattle Trail," old "Cochrans Store on the Dragoon Trail," the leading Chickasaw settlement in the northern half of the new Nation during the war, was already faded history.

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