Captain Ebenezer Sullivan, 15th Regiment, Continental Foot – Original Member
Ebenezer Sullivan was born at Berwick, Maine (then part of Massachusetts) on 3 October 1750, son of John and Margery (Brown) Sullivan. He married at Newington, New Hampshire, 18 February 1773, Abigail Cotton of Portsmouth. They had five children: John (1773-1818), Margery (b. 1774), Moses (b. 1776, d.y.), Sarah (b. 1778), and Lydia (b. 1779).
In the Revolutionary War he distinguished himself for his daring and gallantry. He was Captain of Scammon’s Massachusetts Regiment from May to December 1775 and Captain of the 15th Massachusetts Infantry on 1 January 1776. He volunteered as a hostage to the Indians in the Canada campaign of 1776, and was taken prisoner at the Cedars on 20 May 1776. He was exchanged (or escaped) by 1778. He later was aid to his brother Major General John Sullivan. By the end of the war he had moved to Durham, New Hampshire. When he signed the Covenant of the Society of the Cincinnati he listed his length service in the war as 7 years, 9 months, and deranged. He later moved back to Berwick where he practiced law. In 1799 he moved to Charleston, South Carolina where he died a few months later on 3 June 1799.
Ebenezer Sullivan was an Original Member of the New Hampshire Society of the Cincinnati, joining at the first meeting held at Folsom Tavern in Exeter on 18 November 1783. He was the state chapter’s first Secretary, serving from 1783 to 1785, while his brother Major General John Sullivan served as the first president. Ebenezer’s son Captain John Sullivan (1773-1818) of Portsmouth represented his father upon being elected a member on 4 July 1808.
Sources: New England Historical and Genealogical Register, 19 (1865):305, 22 (1868):158; Francis B. Heitman, Historical Register of Officers of hte Continental Army, 527; Materials for a history of the Family of John Sullivan of Berwick, New England and of the O’Sullivans of Ardea, Ireland
