During the operation, he accompanied a landing party along with Lieutenant Littleton W. T. Waller consisting of a mixed bluejacket and Marine force to suppress looting and to protect the U.S. consulate.

Although the French troops had abandoned the city and cautiously returned to their ships, the Marines secured the Grand Square and began to patrol the streets of the European Quarter, as the international business and consular area was called.

According to the Times of London: "Lord Charles Beresford states that without the assistance of the American Marines he would have been unable to discharge the numerous duties of suppressing fires, preventing looting, burying the dead, and clearing the streets."

In 1898, then Major Cochrane was appointed second in command of the 1st Marine Battalion under Lieutenant Colonel Robert W. Huntington and participated in the landing at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, during the Spanish–American War.

[1] After the Civil War, Cochrane was elected as a Veteran Companion the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States and was assigned insignia number 455.