Ebenezer Sweet

Ebenezer Sweet was born in 1811 in New York.

Ebenezer was married to Scintha (b. 1814), possibly in New York, and they had at least five children: Hannah (b. 1840), Charles (b. 1841), John (b. 1844), James (b. 1846) and Rufus (b. 1848).

They lived in New York for some years – in fact they may have been living in Galen, Wayne County, New York in 1840 -- but between 1846 and 1848 settled in Michigan. By 1850 Ebenezer was working as a cooper and living with his wife and children in Lyons, Ionia County. By 1860 Ebenezer was working as a cooper and living in Lyons with his son-in-law, a butcher named James Sherman (b. 1826 in New York) and his wife Hannah and their daughter Adelaide. Also living with Ebenezer and the Sherman family was Ebenezer’s son Rufus, who was attending school in Lyons.

Ebenezer stood 5’6’ with gray eyes, dark hair and a dark complexion and was about 46 years old when he became a substitute for one John Pong, who was drafted for nine months from Westphalia, Clinton County, and was mustered in on February 6, 1863. He enlisted in Unassigned, was subsequently transferred to Company B on February 26, 1863, at Westphalia for 3 years, and mustered into service in Detroit. He joined the Regiment on March 10 at Camp Pitcher, Virginia and was wounded on July 2 or 3, 1863, at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.

He was absent sick from July of 1863 through May of 1864, and was transferred to Company E, Fifth Michigan infantry upon consolidation of the Third and Fifth Michigan Regiments on June 10, 1864. Ebenezer was reported absent sick from July 1, 1864, through November of 1864, and was mustered out on July 5, 1865, at Jeffersonville, Indiana.

Ebenezer eventually returned to Michigan. By 1880 he was living as a widower and working as a laborer and residing with his daughter Hannah and her husband James Sherman, who was working as a butcher in Reynolds, Montcalm County.

No pension seems to be available.

Ebenezer presumably died in Reynolds and was died in Reynolds Township, Montcalm County. In any case he was buried in Reynolds cemetery: old section.