For the past two years, I've been transcribing and editing a rough draft of a novel about Capt. John Cochran's militia units that my grandfather wrote around 1950. (His father was a 20-year-old private in Cochran's last company, Cochran's Bollinger County V.M.M.

For an appendix, I've been trying to get together as much information as I could find about Cochran's real units. I've been greatly interested in the information you've posted about them--especially your inference that Cochran had three units. On the state adjutants database of civil war soldiers, I've only found evidence of two units, although about 75 men of Cochran's Six-Month E.M.M. appear to have been simultaneously enrolled in Co. A of the 79th Regiment of the E.M.M. for reasons that escape me.

But lately I've been wondering if Cochran did head an earlier unit, perhaps referred to as Cochran's Raiders. One bit of evidence I found was an online bio of Levi James that was taken from Goodspeed's History of Southeast Missouri (1888). It mentions that James was born in 1850 then joined the 14th Missouri Infantry at the age of 12. Then, two month's later, he joined "Captain John R. Cochran's Raiders." That implies that Cochran must have led some kind of a unit in 1863, in not 1862. That would have been before any of his units for which evidence exists in the adjutant general's database.

So here is what I wonder: Could it have been that Cochran formed and somehow supported a paramilitary unit in 1862 or 1863 that was totally outside of the purview of the state or federal government? Hence there would be no records about it in the A.G. database.

That Cochran might have desired such a unit perhaps can be deduced from a petition I found in the state Provost Marshall's files. The petition, written in April 1862, asks General Halleck to send troops to Dallas to protect Union-supporting men from Confederate groups in the area. It is signed by about 60 men, and Cochran's is the first signature. He also apparently took it to St. Louis himself and got the backing of a group called the Central Club for it.

What I am thinking is that after Halleck or anyone else failed to provide a satisfactory response to the petition, Cochran designed to form a group of his own to respond to the conditions outlined in the petition. That would have been "Cochran's Raiders." Then in a year or so, perhaps after Cochran demonstrated some success, finally got the blessing for a state/federal supported militia company. Would such a theory make any sense? Meanwhile, here is the petition I spoke of:

April 9, 1862

Petition

To his Excellency, H.W. Halleck, U.S.A
Major General Commanding Department of the Mississippi

We the undersigned Union citizens of Bollinger Co., Southeast Missouri, are and have been since the commencement of this war infested with several bands of rebel robbers and murderers, mounted upon the best horses in the country and said to be about seven hundred strong, under the command of four notorious rebels: Jason Hunter , Solomon Kitchens , Wm. Jeffers and a scoundrel named Bowles , all claiming to be in the service of the notorious Jeff Thompson , making midnight raids through this county in a circuit of 10 or 15 miles in and around the town of Dallas, hunting down Union men wherever they can find them, stealing their horses and work cattle, abusing their families and indiscriminately murdering every Union man that they can lay hand on. As an instance, on March 26, 1862, these scoundrels paid a visit to the neighborhood surrounding Dallas and took all the horses he had from a good Union citizen, Amos Baker, leaving him without the means to put in a crop thereby depriving his wife and family of support, stole horses from three other good union men Henry Crader, Maston Lyle and Joseph Miller and murdered the said Miller, shooting him three times and stabbing him twice after he was shot, (and) shot a soldier in the Missouri Volunteer Militia named Samuel Robbins, who came here on a furlough to see his sick wife. Proceeding to Dallas, they entered the courthouse and carried away all the books and papers in the county clerk’s office and took James Noel , clerk of the county court and member of the state convention, a prisoner to their camp. Since that time they have repeatedly stolen horses from other parts of the neighborhood and fired into parties of Missouri State Militia in or near the town of Jackson, and threaten(ed) they will shoot down any Union man who will attempt to make a crop. The town of Dallas is chiefly inhabited by returned rebels from Jeff Thompson’s camp, who have been to Cape Girardeau and taken the oath of allegiance to the United States but who are well known to act as spies, and harbor and encourage these murdering bands in their depredations.

Therefore, we your petitioners, relying solely upon your Excellency for protection, humbly pray you will send a force in this neighborhood and arrest and break up these bands of rebel robbers and murderers, and your petitioners will ever pray.

John R. Cochran, C.J. Eaker, Freling Eaker, Thomas A.J. Eaker

E.R. Frazier (?) Robert Vance August Lampseicht (?)James W. Baker

Maston Lyle Alfred Hawn Aaron Huffstuttler John L. Sweesey
John A. Kinder Ephraim Myers James Eaker Sr. John D. Laughtes

W.A. O’Reilly John A. O’Reilly Philip A. O’Reilly John O’Reilly Sr.
Kevin(?) Cooper Bird(?) Francis L.D. (?) Hill Elijah Shelton

W.C. Williams William Adams Richard Sweesey Irwin Collins

Leonard Jones(?) Wm. H. Gaines Raiford Cooper William Slaughter

Willian Fowler William Burrow Ephraim Wallace

George H. Aylesworth(?) John Sweesey Madison Anderson

Thomas J. Cooper William Vance Lawrence(?) Eaker William Ferris(?)

William Obst Thomas Beers(?) William Cooper Thomas Berry

Madison E. Black Enoch Verdon(?) John James Henry Gaines

August Winters August Heizler(?) Jesse Lutes David Fraysher(?)

Leon Von Aix(?) Amos Baker Henry Crader

St. Louis
16th April 1862

Mr. Cochran comes to me with the representations made in this paper accredited by such parties as leave no room for doubt as to the truthfulness of the statements he (something) makes. His official relation to the Union organization of Bollinger Co. must give weight and importance to the object of his visit to St. Louis.

Respectfully,

E. Myerson(?)

Ex. Pres. Union

Central Club

St. Louis