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
Qualifying Service: Lieutenant
Author: Robert Alan Stevens
On April 23rd, 1775, four days after the battle of Lexington and Concord, sixteen year old Ephraim Stevens, son of Joseph Stevens and Elizabeth Sawtelle, enlisted in the Third New Hampshire Regiment commanded by Colonel James Reed. His company commander was Ezra Town. His regiment arrived in Cambridge June 14th and was stationed near the neck connecting to Charlestown Peninsula with Breed’s and Bunker Hills. Three days later British forces crossed Boston Harbor to attack the American troops. Ephraim’s regiment was among the first to meet the British. After the battle, the American forces kept Boston under siege until the British evacuated the city March 17th, 1776. Ephraim reenlisted January 1st, 1776 and after the British evacuation, his regiment moved on to New York where the British were expected to return. In April, Ephraim’s regiment was sent north to the American campaign in Canada to help prevent the British forces in Canada from moving south to join the British forces that were expected to attack New York. The British arrived in the lower New York harbor in June of 1776 and established their base on Staten Island across from Long Island. In the northern campaign the British were unable to move far enough south before winter set in and therefore they moved back to Canada for the winter. Ephraim’s regiment then joined the other northern regiments and moved south to join General Washington across the Delaware River from Trenton. His regiment was one of the many that crossed the Delaware River December 25th to surprise and defeat the British outpost at Trenton. On January 1st, 1777, after twenty months of service in the Third New Hampshire Regiment, eighteen year old Ephraim Stevens received his military discharge at Bristol, Pennsylvania on the Delaware River just a few miles south of Trenton. In June, 1779, Ephraim enlisted for a five month assignment with a Massachusetts militia to try to remove the British from a recently established outpost at Penobscot Bay on the Bagaduce Peninsula in Maine. He was appointed Lieutenant and served under Major Lithgow and Captain Blunt. His safe return from the campaign marked the end of his Revolutionary military service
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