Dr. Cochran

He was General George Washington’s personal physician. He was surgeon-general of the American Continental Army during the Revolutionary War.

And he was the doctor who twice saved the life of the Marquis de Lafayette — the French soldier who, in 1777, had sailed to America to help the Colonies in their struggle for independence from Great Britain.

His name was Doctor John Cochran and although he never lived in Utica, today he is buried in the city’s Forest Hill Cemetery off Oneida Street.

It was September 1777 at the Battle of Brandywine — southwest of Philadelphia — when the doctor saved Lafayette’s life the first time.

Lafayette was only 20 years old, but already a major general on General Washington’s staff. He was rallying his men against a British charge when suddenly he saw blood oozing from the top of his left boot.

He had been shot. Washington saw what had happened and asked Dr. Cochran to rush to the aid of the young Frenchman. “Treat him as though he were my son, doctor,” Washington said.

When Dr. Cochran reached Lafayette, he was in a pool of blood and in much pain. A bullet had gone through his lower calf and he was bleeding profusely. Dr. Cochran had not a moment to lose. Within minutes, he stopped the bleeding and cleaned and bandaged the wound.

One year later — late in 1778 — the doctor saved Lafayette’s life again.

The Frenchman had decided to return home now that France had joined the war against Great Britain. A grateful American Continental Congress ordered its best warship, the “Alliance,” to sail the hero home.

Lafayette

On October 27, 1778, Lafayette left Philadelphia on horseback for Boston where the “Alliance” was docked. It was a cold, rainy day and Lafayette, after many months of fighting on American battlefields, was tired.

Worn out. Weak. Homesick.

Half way to Boston, he fell ill with fever. He collapsed just as he was entering Fishkill, a tiny community near the Hudson River in New York and just south of Poughkeepsie.

He lay in bed for days as doctors tried, but failed, to break his fever.  He told visitors, “I am near Death’s door.”

When word eventually reached General Washington that Lafayette was dying, he summoned Dr. Cochran and said, “Doctor, you must go to Fishkill and once again save the life of our good friend.”

Two weeks later, newspapers reported: “Under the skillful treatment of Dr. John Cochran ... Lafayette has rallied and the crisis has passed.”

The doctor then accompanied Lafayette to Boston where, on January 11, 1779, he put to sea.

Lafayette later wrote: “I owe my life to good Madeira wine and the good care of Doctor Cochran.”

After the war, Dr. Cochran settled in Albany. Later, he and his sons, Walter and James, moved into a mansion between St. Johnsville and Palatine Bridge in the Mohawk Valley. There, James practiced law. In 1807, the doctor died and was buried near his home.

Several years later, James married the daughter of Gen­eral Philip Schuyler. In 1772, three years before the start of the Revolutionary War, Schuyler had purchased for about 15 cents an acre much of the land where Utica today is located. When he died, he left much of that land to his daughter and son-in-law. In 1817, the couple moved to Utica to look after their property.

And, they took Dr. John Cochran along with them. His remains were disinterred from a cemetery near St. Johnsville and reburied in Potter Cemetery in Utica (later the site for many years of Potter School).

When Potter Cemetery was abandoned in the 1870s, the doctor’s remains were moved to Forest Hill Cemetery. And that’s where they are today.