Battle of Brooklyn Chapter Sons of the American Revolution
The Green-Wood Cemetery - Greenwood Heights
Meet the patriots who call Green-Wood Cemetery their final resting place.
Ebenezer Stevens | SAR Patriot # P-297260, DAR # A108796
1751–1823
- Lieutenant Colonel, Continental Army
- Major General, New York State Militia
- Boston Tea Party Participant
Early Life
Ebenezer Stevens was born in Roxbury, Province of Massachusetts Bay, in August 1751 (sources list August 11, 12, 21, or 22). He was the son of Ebenezer Stevens (1726–1763) and Elizabeth Weld Stevens (b. 1727), and descended from his great-grandfather Erasmus Stevens, who appears in Boston tax records in 1674. As a young man, he trained as an artillerist in Adino Paddock’s Boston militia unit, serving alongside notable patriots such as Paul Revere.
Revolutionary War Service
Stevens was active in the earliest patriotic protests and in military service during the Revolution. He participated in the Boston Tea Party (16 December 1773), patrolling the docks and helping dispose of taxed tea (family accounts note participants did not disguise themselves as Mohawks). After the Tea Party, he fled to Rhode Island.
Following the outbreak of hostilities, Stevens joined the Continental Army and fought at Bunker Hill (1775). Commissioned as a lieutenant under Henry Knox, he rose rapidly through the artillery ranks and took part in major northern campaigns:
- Served at Ticonderoga and Saratoga, witnessing Burgoyne’s surrender (1777).
- Promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1778.
- Commanded artillery under Lafayette at Yorktown (1781).
- Remained active in New York until his discharge in 1783.
Post War & Militia Service
After the Revolution, Stevens transitioned to state militia leadership and civic defense:
- Appointed Brigadier General, New York State Militia (1799).
- Promoted to Major General in 1814, organizing New York City’s defenses during the War of 1812.
- Fort Stevens (Queens) was later named in his honor.
Business & Civic Life
Stevens became a successful merchant and shipowner, building a significant importing and shipping business from Manhattan. He engaged in civic and social organizations and correspondence at high levels:
- Member, Society of the Cincinnati.
- Active in the New England Society (served as president).
- Member of the Tammany Society.
- Served briefly in the New York State Assembly.
- Corresponded with Thomas Jefferson (notably in 1806 regarding wine imports).
Family
- First marriage: Rebecca Hodgdon (1753–1783) — four children.
- Second marriage (1784): Lucretia Ledyard Sands (1756–1846) — seven children; several descendants married into prominent New York families.
- Notable descendant: novelist Edith Wharton.
Death & Burial
- Ebenezer Stevens died September 2, 1823, at his summer home in Astoria, Queens. He was originally buried there; his remains were reinterred in 1860 to the Stevens family lot at Green-Wood Cemetery, Brooklyn (Section 75, Lot 10402), alongside his wife and other family members.
250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party | Ebenezer Stevens
