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1852 PATTERN USN OFFICER’S BELT PLATE OF HENRY CLAY COCHRANE: AS A USMC 2nd LIEUTENANT HE ACCOMPANIED LINCOLN TO GETTYSBURG IN 1863 & WROTE ABOUT IT

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This grouping comes with a 1995 letter indicating they were among items purchased at a moving sale held in Alexandria, VA, in 1993 by a member of the Cochrane family, a sale that included items identified to Brigadier General Henry Clay Cochrane, USMC. Born in 1842, Cochrane reportedly wanted to be a teacher but opted for a military career when the war broke out. An August 1861 commission in the Marine Corps was revoked, however, when it was discovered he was only nineteen and he enlisted instead in the U.S. Navy on September 7, 1861, serving as an Acting Master’s Mate until he was offered a new commission in the USMC as a 2^nd Lieutenant to date March 10, 1863, and he resigned from the Navy to take it.

In his 1907 published reminiscences he wrote, “I was a Lieutenant of Marines stationed at the Headquarters of the Marine Corps in Washington in November, 1863, when I received an order to accompany the Marine Band to Gettysburg to take part in the ceremonies attending the dedication of the National Cemetery at that place…” His account is four pages long and frequently cited in accounts of Lincoln at Gettysburg and studies of the composition and delivery of the Gettysburg address. He not only talked with Lincoln on the train ride north, recalling later their conversation and his impressions, he was also one of the mounted officers and notables in the procession to the ceremony at National Cemetery, and was seated on the stand within seven or eight feet of Lincoln, Seward, Edward Everett and other dignitaries. As if it could not get any better, the Archives Division of the USMC has the contemporary 4-page letter he wrote to his parents on November 21, 1863, detailing the event as well.

Cochrane had a long career in the Marine Corps: Second Lieutenant U. S. Marine Corps March 10, 1863 ; First Lieutenant August 20, 1865; Captain March 16, 1879; Major February 1, 1898; Lieut. Colonel March 3, 1899; Colonel January 11, 1900; Brig.-General March 10, 1905; retired March 10, 1905. In addition to his Civil War service, he was executive officer in a landing party of some 120 sailors and marines who ventured into the streets of Alexandria, Egypt, to secure the American Consulate and the European Quarter during the British bombardment of the city in 1882; he attended the coronation of Czar Alexander III in Moscow in 1883; he saw action in the Spanish-American War, landing at Guantanamo Bay in 1898; and, he commanded the 1^st Marine Regiment in the China Relief Expedition during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900. He retired from active duty as a Colonel in 1905, but was promoted to Brigadier General on the retired list in 1911 (apparently effective as of 1905.) He passed away in Chester, PA, April 27, 1913.

This group includes Cochrane’s 1852 pattern US Navy Officer’s Dress belt plate, identified in the 1995 letter, a pattern dating ca. 1860-1875 and appropriate to his first military service. With this are also two stickpins- one a green four-leaf clover and the other with an inlaid gilt “C” and Greek key or meander pattern- one of which, probably the latter, is listed as also belonging the Henry Clay Cochrane. In addition to those items there are two tie clasps, one brass and the other white or silver metal with a geometric design, both with pins in place on the reverse, and two watch keys for a pocket watch attached to a short chain.

The belt plate is in excellent condition, high quality, and is a close match for O’Donnell and Campbell Plate 1006, having an oak-leaf and acorn wreath with four ribbon ties that is wide enough to slightly overlap the belt loops. The tongue disk is die-struck, and shows the eagle perched on a horizontal anchor, facing the viewer’s right, and surrounded by thirteen stars around the sides and top. The eagle is very well done in high relief on a stippled ground. The tongue bar shows a bench number “20.” The face of the tongue bar and back plates of the wreath show strong gilt, which is present, but muted, in some recesses of the wreath. The backs of both pieces seem to have been lacquered, just like the O&C example.

This is an attractive set from an officer with long and interesting service- the most interesting of which resulted from a chance assignment early in his career in November 1863.  [sr][ph:L]

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