The following information was assembled from numerous sources and cannot be used directly as proof of Qualifying Service or Lineage.
It is considered a research aid and is intended to assist in locating sources that can be used as proof.
State of Service: MA/RI
Qualifying Service: Lieutenant Colonel / Patriotic Service
Birth: 22 Aug 1752 Boston / Suffolk / MA Death: 02 Sep 1823 Hempstead / Queens / NY
Qualifying Service Description:
1773, a participant in the Boston Tea Party.
1775, 1st Lieutenant of the Rhode Island Artillery. Also, a Captain in the regiment of Colonel Knox - Continental Army.
1776, served as a Major of an Independent Battalion of Artillery.
1777, served as a brevet (temporary) Major in the Continental Army.
1778, served as a brevet (temporary) Lieutenant-Colonel of the Continental Army. Later, he was made a full Lieutenant-Colonel, which he served until 1783.
Additional References:
Revolutionary War Pension file W20076 and Bounty Land Warrant 1972-450-15
Secretary of the Commonwealth, Massachusetts Soldiers, and Sailors of the Revolutionary War, Volume XIV, Massachusetts. Boston: Wright & Potter Printing Co., 1901, pg 958-959
Heitman, Francis B., Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution, 1775-1873, Washington DC: Rare Book Shop Publishing Company, 1914, pg 15, 519
Ebenezer Stevens was born on 11 August 1751 in Boston, Massachusetts, to Ebenezer and Elizabeth (Weld) Stevens.
As a young man, he enlisted in Paddock’s Artillery Company of the Massachusetts Militia with early members of the Boston Sons of Liberty, such as Paul Revere. He participated in the Boston Tea Party and was recognized by witnesses on the street as such. With his name turned over to the authorities, he fled to Rhode Island to avoid arrest.
When the news of the Battle of Lexington and Concord reached Stevens in Rhode Island, he volunteered and was commissioned 1st Lieutenant in the Militia Company of Rhode Island Artillery in May 1775. He fought at Bunker Hill under Nathanael Greene. Ebenezer was then promoted to Captain in Knox’s Regiment of Artillery on 10 December 1775 and as a Major with his own command of an Independent Artillery Corp on 9 November 1776. He was commissioned a Brevet-Major in the Continental Army on 27 May 1777; his command was attached to Colonel John Crane’s 3rd Continental Artillery in the Autumn of 1778.
He was again promoted on 2 April 1778 as a Brevet Lieutenant-Colonel in the Continental Army. For the duration of the war, he was Lieutenant-Colonel in Colonel John Lamb’s New York 2nd Continental Artillery, from 24 November 1778 through June 1783, when he was discharged at West Point. Ebenezer was engaged in most of the major battles of the Northern Department and the 2nd and 3rd Continental Artillery Regiments from Bunker Hill through to Yorktown, including Quebec, the New Jersey Campaign, the Defense of Philadelphia, and the Saratoga Campaign, and at the surrender of Burgoyne after Bemis Heights, 2nd Saratoga, he also was instrumental in the victory in the surrender of Lord Cornwallis at Yorktown. He served under Generals Schuyler, Greene, and Lafayette. In John Turmbull’s painting “Surrender of Burgoyne,” he is pictured leaning against an artillery carriage wheel on the far right.
After the war, Ebenezer settled in New York City and became a successful merchant, fleet owner, and liquor importer. He operated primarily out of his offices at 222 Front Street in the current South Street in the Seaport historic district. During the War of 1812, he served in the New York Militia at the rank of Major General, primarily fortifying the defenses of New York in case of a British attack.
He married Rebecca Hodgden in June 1774. She was a resident of Providence, Rhode Island. Among their known children:
Elizabeth was born in 1775 and died young.
Horatio Gates was born on 19 September 1777 and married Elizabeth Lucille Rhinelander.
Rebecca was born on 24 November 1780 and married John Schermerhorn.
George Alexander was born on 31 September 1782 and died without children.
After she died in 1783, he married on 4 May 1784 to Mrs. Lucretia (Ledyard) Sands, the widow of Richardson Sands. Their known children include:
Samuel was born on 14 March 1785 and died without children.
William was born on 4 May 1787 and died without children.
Alexander Hodgdon was born on 4 September 1789 and married 1) Mary Jane Bayard, 2) Catherine Morris, and 3) Phoebe Coles.
Bryan Kerby was born on 20 April 1792 and married Frances Gallatin.
John Austin was born on 24 January 1795 and married Abigail “Abby” Perkins Weld.
Henry Hewgill was born on 28 February 1797 and married Catherine Clarkson Crosby.
Mary Lucretia was born on 16 April 1798 and married Frederick Rhinelander.
The Patriot died on 2 September 1823 at Rockaway, Queens, New York, and was buried in Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn. He was buried elsewhere initially, possibly at his home “Mount Napoleon” in Astoria, Queens, and reinterred at Green-Wood after it opened in 1838. On 16 December 2023, the Battle of Brooklyn Chapter, ESSSAR honored Ebenezer Stevens at Green-Wood as being the only “Boston Tea Party” participant buried in New York
Sources:
Revolutionary War Pension file W20076
Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors in the Revolutionary War
Heitman’s Register of Continental Officers
New York Military in the Revolutionary War
U.S. Revolutionary War Rolls, 1775-1783
U.S. Revolutionary War Service Records
Numerous biographical accounts.
Author: Ernest Loran Sutton
Ebenezer Stevens (August 11, 1751 – September 2, 1823) was a lieutenant colonel in the Continental Army during the American Revolution, a major general in the New York state militia and a New York City merchant.
Stevens was born August 11, 1751, at Roxbury what was then the Provence of Massachusetts in British America. He was the son of Ebenezer Stevens (1726–1763) and Elizabeth (nee Weld) Stevens (b. 1727), and his paternal grandfather was Erasmus Stevens, a native of Boston, a lieutenant with the Military Company of Massachusetts.
Ebenezer Stevens was a participant in what became known as the Boston Tea Party. As a member of the Sons of Liberty, he began his career in Paddock's Artillery Company along with the likes of Paul Revere and Thomas Crafts. Together with other members of the company, and under the leadership of Jabez Hatch, he participated in the Boston Tea Party. His later recollections to his family debunked the myth that the participants had dressed up as Native Americans.
Not long after the Boston Tea Party he moved to Rhode Island and there, upon receiving news of the Battle of Lexington, volunteered for the Continental Army. He was commissioned as a first lieutenant in the Company of Rhode Island Artillery in May 1775, and fought in the Battle of Bunker Hill under Major General Nathanael Greene. He was promoted to major of the Independent Battalion of Artillery, November 9, 1776.
Ebenezer was selected by George Washington to raise battalions against Quebec, Canada. Ebenezer was present at the surrender of the British General Burgoyne at Saratoga, New York, October 17, 1777. He served under the French general the Marquis de Lafayette in Virginia with distinction.
On November 24, 1778, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel in Lamb's Continental Artillery Regiment (later the 2nd Continental Artillery Regiment) to rank from April 30, 1778. In 1781 he was one of the artillery commanders at the Siege of Yorktown. He was discharged from the army in June 1783.
Although it is stated in several sources that Stevens was a major general in the United States Army, there is no official documentation to support this notion. He was, however, a major general in the New York state militia after the Revolution and mobilized militiamen to defend New York City in case of British attack in September 1814. He lived as a merchant in New York City.
Stevens was married twice. He married his first wife, Rebecca Hodgdon at Providence, Rhode Island, October 11, 1774. Rebecca was the daughter of Benjamin Hodgdon. Together, Ebenezer and Rebecca were the parents of 4 children.
After the death of his first wife in July 1783, he married his second wife, Lucretia (née Ledyard) Sands (1756–1846), May 4, 1784, at New York City. Lucretia was the widow of Richardson Sands. Together, they were the parents of 7 children including through his son John, he was the grandfather of historian John Austin Stevens who founded the Sons of Revolution.
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