He served throughout the entire American war of independence, from April 1775 through November 1783, achieving the rank of colonel.

[1][2] Ebenezer Sproat was in the field with the Continental Army throughout the American Revolutionary War,[3][4] and was engaged in the battles of Trenton, Princeton, and Monmouth.

[12] Ebenezer Sproat was promoted to colonel during September 1783,[3] shortly before the end of his eight and one-half years of service in the Continental Army.

An anecdote illustrating Colonel Sproat's good nature with the enlisted ranks concerns a furlough early in the war when he was home visiting his mother.

[16][17] On April 7, 1788, Ebenezer Sproat and a group of American pioneers to the Northwest Territory, led by Rufus Putnam, arrived at the confluence of the Ohio and Muskingum rivers to establish Marietta, Ohio as the first permanent American settlement in the Northwest Territory.

Colonel Sproat, with his tall and commanding presence, was a notable member of the pioneer settlement of Marietta.

He greatly impressed the local Indians, who in admiration dubbed him "Hetuck", meaning "eye of the buck dear", or "Big Buckeye".

[21][22][23] Some historians believe this is how Ohio came to be known as the Buckeye State, though a more commonly accepted explanation involves the later presidential campaign of William Henry Harrison.

[28] Ebenezer Sproat died in Marietta in early 1805, either on January 7,[29] or perhaps during February,[30] with his oft-repeated wish of a sudden exit fully answered.

[30] He is buried adjacent to his father-in-law, Commodore Whipple, and near many other American Revolutionary War soldiers and pioneers at Mound Cemetery in Marietta.