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. He died in Bosque County, Texas, in 1893. 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 the Cochran's father.
Transcripts are available for all of the letters.
The Cochran family letters were purchased from Howard McManus, a manuscripts dealer of Roanoke, Virginia, in May 1992. Comments on South Carolina's secession from the Union. There is nothing talked about here but that all absorbing subject secession. We have nothing new from Charlestown to night. But I expect there will be stiring times there in a day or two.