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Sir Alexander Inglis Cochrane GCB RN (23 April 1758 – 26 January 1832, born Alexander Forrester Cochrane〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Alexander Cochrane )〕) was a senior Royal Navy commander during the Napoleonic Wars and achieved the rank of Admiral. He was knighted for his service. == Naval career == Alexander Inglis Cochrane was born a younger son of the Scottish peer Thomas Cochrane, the eighth Earl of Dundonald, and his wife.〔 He joined the Royal Navy as a boy and served with British naval forces in North America. He served during the American War of Independence.〔 Cochrane also participated in the Egyptian operations in 1801.〔 When Alexandria fell, Cochrane, in the 74-gun third-rate HMS ''Ajax'', with the sixth-rate HMS ''Bonne Citoyenne'', the HMS ''Cynthia'', the brig-sloops HMS ''Port Mahon'' and HMS ''Victorieuse'', and three Turkish corvettes, were the first vessels to enter the harbour. In 1805 he was made commander of the Leeward Islands station.〔 He conducted operations against the French and Spanish on 6 February 1806 at the Battle of San Domingo during the Napoleonic Wars.〔 A cannonball blew his hat off his head while he was on the deck of his flagship, HMS ''Northumberland''. He was knighted and appointed KCB on 29 March 1806 in recognition of his service.〔 Other rewards included thanks from both Houses of Parliament, freedom of the city of London, and a sword valued at 100 guineas.〔 In Barbados, Cochrane met with General Francisco de Miranda, who had been defeated by Spanish naval forces in an attempt to liberate Venezuela. As Spain was then at war with Britain, Cochrane and the governor of Trinidad agreed to provide some support for an unsuccessful second attempt to invade Venezuela. Following the concern in Britain that neutral Denmark was entering an alliance with Napoleon, with the rank of Rear-Admiral, in 1807 he sailed in HMS ''Belleisle'' (74 guns) as commander of the squadron of ships that was sent to occupy the Danish West Indies. In 1809 he commanded naval forces in the conquest of Martinique.〔Anderson, p. 102.〕 From April 1814, during the War of 1812 against the United States, Cochrane, then a Vice Admiral, served as Commander-in-Chief of both the North American Station, based at the new dockyard in Bermuda,〔 and the Jamaica Station, based at Port Royal.〔Cundall, p. xx〕 He landed the force under Major-General Robert Ross that burned Washington and pushed successful naval forays at the same time. Initially he wanted to attack Rhode Island in New England after the success at Washington, but he was dissuaded by Ross and Admiral Cockburn, who wanted to go after the bigger prize of Baltimore, Maryland. During the Battle of Baltimore, Cochrane directed the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore, which proved ineffectual. He resisted calls by his junior officers to attack the fort more aggressively with frigates at close range. He ordered a diversionary raid by boats to assist the army encamped near Baltimore in their proposed attack on Hampstead hill (which they cancelled and withdrew), but this diversion had no success. In the bombardment of Fort McHenry, Cochrane's fleet used bomb vessels and a rocket ship for a long-range bombardment to minimize casualties and damage to the fleet from the fort's return fire, which inspired Francis Scott Key's poem that became "The Star-Spangled Banner," the US national anthem. Cochrane led the British force that won the Battle of Lake Borgne in December of 1814, in Louisiana. His forces built a hard short road to New Orleans for use by British armed forces. But, the British army was defeated at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815. As news that Britain had ratified the peace treaty (the Treaty of Ghent) had not reached the battlefield, the Battle of New Orleans was technically fought after the war was ended. The peace treaty was being carried to Washington, D.C., for ratification by the U.S. Congress. The Duke of Wellington held that the failure of the New Orleans campaign was largely the fault of Cochrane. In a eulogy to General Edward Pakenham -- Wellington's brother-in-law, killed at New Orleans, he said:
Despite the lack of success at New Orleans, the British nonetheless went on to force the surrender of Mobile, Mississippi Territory, and to capture the flagship, U.S.S. ''President'' and its commodore Stephen Decatur, outside the New York Harbor. Cochrane was thence promoted to admiral in 1819. From 1821 to 1824, he was Commander-in-Chief, Plymouth.〔 He died in Paris on 26 January 1832. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Alexander Cochrane」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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