detachment of five hundred men, ordered out to suppress a mutiny of the 2nd New Jersey Regiment at Pompton, New Jersey. Three of the ringleaders of the mutiny were tried on the spot, with Lieutenant Colonel Sproat being president of the court-martial. This was a sorrowful duty for Colonel Sproat; two of the men were sentenced and executed. He often said that duty was the most painful ever imposed upon him. Ebenezer Sproat was promoted to colonel during September 1783, 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. Three private soldiers asked for lunch at his parents' tavern, and when finished eating, asked him the cost. He informed them that the cost was about a shilling for each man. To their surprise, instead of collecting the money from them, he paid each man a shilling and wished them a good journey. Colonel Sproat was also on good terms with the officers such as General Von Steuben, and was a friend of General Washington. Post-war in Rhode Island After the war, Ebenezer Sproat lived in Providence, Rhode Island, where he married Catherine Whipple, daughter of Commodore Abraham Whipple of the Continental Navy. He purchased a store, and worked as a merchant, but was not successful. In 1786 he was appointed as surveyor for the state of Rhode Island. In that role, he participated in the surveying of the Seven Ranges in the Ohio Country. The Ohio Country Ebenezer Sproat became a shareholder of the Ohio Company of Associates, and was engaged as a surveyor with the company. 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. Ebenezer's wife, daughter, and Commodore Whipple joined him at Marietta the following year. 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". Some historians believe this is how Ohio came to be known as the Buckeye State,