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. 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, on 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 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.
After the war
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.
Personal life
Stevens was married twice. He married his first wife, Rebecca Hodgden, in Providence, Rhode Island, on October 11, 1774. Rebecca was the daughter of Benjamin Hodgdon. Together, Ebenezer and Rebecca were the parents of:
Elizabeth Stevens, who died young.
Horatio Gates Stevens, who married Eliza Lucille Rhinelander, a daughter of William Rhinelander. He was also a major general in the New York state militia.
After the death of his first wife in July 1783, he married secondly to Lucretia Sands on May 4, 1784, in New York City. Lucretia was the widow of Richardson Sands. From her first marriage, Lucretia was the grandmother of banker Samuel Stevens Sands. Together, they were the parents of:
Samuel Stevens, a prominent lawyer and commissioner of the Croton Aqueduct who did not marry.
William Stevens, who did not marry.
Alexander Hodgdon Stevens, a surgeon who married three times; Mary Jane Bayard, Catherine Morris in 1825, Phoebe Coles Lloyd.
Through his oldest son Horatio, he was the grandfather of Mary Lucille Stevens, who married Albert Rolaz Gallatin, a son of Albert Gallatin, in 1837. Albert Rolaz Gallatin was the older brother of Frances Gallatin, the wife of Ebenezer's son Byam. Through his son Byam, he was the grandfather of New York bankers Byam Kerby Stevens Jr. and Alexander Henry Stevens, himself the grandfather of Eugenie Mary Davie, a Republican activist who served as a director of the Pioneer Fund. Through his son John, he was the grandfather of historian John Austin Stevens who founded the Sons of the Revolution. Through his daughter Mary Lucretia, Stevens was the grandfather of Frederic W. Rhinelander, president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Lucretia Stevens Jones, mother to novelist and decorator Edith Wharton and Frederic Rhinelander Jones.
