Ebenezer Stevens

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. Early life Stevens was born on August 11, 1751, in Roxbury in what was then the Province of Massachusetts Bay in British America. He was the son of Ebenezer Stevens (1726–1763) and Elizabeth (née Weld) Stevens (b. 1727), and his paternal grandfather was Erasmus Stevens, a native of Boston, a lieutenant with the Military Company of the Massachusetts. Career Ebenezer Stevens was a participant in what became known as the Boston Tea Party. 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. Revolutionary War service 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 on November 9, 1776.