Floyd B Cochran - The County and the Kaiser

Private, Btry B, 147th Field Artillery, 32nd Division.

Killed in action near St. Gilles, France, August 5, 1918. Age 30.

Town: Batavia

Burial: Oise-Aisne American Cemetery, Plot D Row 8 Grave 36, Fere-en-Tardenois, France

Born on June 23, 1888 in East Pembroke, Floyd Brown Cochran lived his entire life in Genesee County, New York, before leaving for the Army in the fall of 1917. The 1900 US Census shows Floyd at age 11 living in Pembroke with his parents (Henry B and Martha nee Long Cochran) and his brother (Frank). The 1905 NY Census lists him at age 17 with his family in Elba. By 1915 he was living in Batavia; the 1915 NY Census, registered in June, lists Floyd living as a boarder at 27 Addams Street and employed as a clerk in a feed store. An August 11, 1915 Batavia Daily News article announces the marriage the previous evening of Floyd B Cochran of Batavia to Miss Clara Scroger, “the efficient and popular deputy postmaster at Elba,” and says that the couple would be residing in Batavia in apartments at West Main and Oak Streets. 1917’s Genesee County “Militia Enrollment List” gives Cochran’s street address as 200 West Main Street in Batavia and his occupation as electrical operator. His draft registration card gives the same address and occupation, and his employer as the Genesee Light & Power Company.

Floyd Cochran was inducted into the Army on November 22, 1917, and left the next day for Camp Dix, New Jersey with Genesee’s County’s third contingent of draftees. A little more than a week later he was assigned to Battery D of the 307th Field Artillery (78th Division). Private Cochran was among a group of Battery D soldiers who were transferred on February 20, 1918 to Camp Merritt, New Jersey and sent to France as replacements. He went overseas on March 4, 1918, and was eventually assigned to Battery B of the 147th Field Artillery. Note that although Cochran’s ABMC listing puts the 147th Field Artillery in the 41st Division, its original divisional home, the 147th was attached to the 32nd Division shortly after its arrival in France and fought with that division throughout the war (see Record of Service of 147th Field Artillery, page 3).

County Lists 1 and 2 (August 5, 1919 and October 12, 1922 Batavia Daily News), the September 26, 1918 Batavia Daily News, and the New York Roll of Honor all give August 8, 1918 as the date Floyd Cochran was killed. However, both official unit histories and the ABMC WWI database give August 5, 1918 as the date of death, and in two places on his NYSS the date of death has been changed from August 8 to August 5. Most significantly, a document in Cochran’s Burial Case File from the Adjutant General, War Department to the Army’s Quartermaster General, dated January 5, 1928, states, “The records of this office show that the correct date of death of Floyd B. Cochran, A.S. #2308829, was August 5, 1918. By order of the Secretary of War: W.E. Chickering [signature], Adjutant General.”

When Private Cochran was killed, the 147th Field Artillery was engaged in the Aisne-Marne offensive, which was launched on July 18. By August 3 the 32nd Division had driven retreating German forces in its sector back to strong defensive positions on the north bank of the Vesle River, near St. Gilles and Fismes. On August 5, the day Cochran was killed, the 147th Field Artillery was under artillery fire while delivering the same in support of the division’s assault to establish bridgeheads across the Vesle. According to Record of Service of 147th Field Artillery, Cochran was killed by enemy shell fire near St. Gilles.

More details of Private Cochran’s death are provided in several searcher’s reports in his Burial Case File. The times and dates of death in the reports vary considerably, one ranging as far afield as “about the 1st of October,” but all describe similar circumstances and places. Sergeant Kendall Dufur of HQ, 147th F.A., is quoted: “Pvt Cochran was killed about 3.00 AM. of the 8th (?) and was buried the same day about three kilos north of Dravigney in what we called death Valley near Battery Positions.” Corporal Chas. Chadbourne, Co. B, 147th F.A., stated, “COCHRAN was killed the 5th or 6th of Aug. during the night when he was in his tent asleep. . . . It was about 2 miles from Dravegny. . . . His grave is in Death Valley.”

Perhaps most accurate is this report by Battery B’s Captain James S. Gay, Jr.: “Killed in action August 5th 1918 near St. Giles, France. Private Cochran had just been relieved from gun crew that had been firing and retired for the night. A German shell struck near where he was lying, killing him instantly.”

Note that the correct spellings for the place names in the searcher’s reports are Dravegny and St. Gilles. “Death Valley” was a long, narrow valley north of Dravegny and west of St. Gilles where several artillery regiments, including the 147th, had established dozens of gun emplacements.

Private Cochran’s remains were later interred at the Oise-Aisne American Cemetery in Fere-en-Tardenois, France.

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September 26, 1918 Batavia Daily News p1 c5-6

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Source: New York Service Summary from Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919, NY State Archives, Albany, New York