Ebenezer Dumont

Ebenezer Dumont was born November 23, 1814, in Vevay, Indiana. He studied law, was admitted to the bar and began practice in Vevay. He served as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives in 1838 and, from 1839 to 1845, was treasurer of Vevay. In the Mexican War, Dumont was a captain and lieutenant colonel of the 4th Indiana Volunteers. He additionally served as a member of the Indiana House of Representatives from 1850 to 1853 and was a presidential elector for Franklin Pierce in 1842. Dumont was living in Indianapolis at the outbreak of the Civil War and on April 27, 1861, was mustered into the 7th Indiana Volunteer Infantry (a ninety-day regiment that was reorganized as a three-year regiment in September) as a colonel. He saw action with the 7th Infantry at Laurel Hill, Rich Mountain, and Corrick’s Ford. He was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers September 3, 1861, and saw action at Cheat Mountain and on the Greenbriar River against Robert E. Lee. In January 1862, he commanded the 17th Brigade of the Army of Ohio, opposed John H. Morgan’s cavalry at Lebanon, Kentucky in May, and commanded the 12th Division of Don Carlos Buell’s army during Braxton Bragg’s Kentucky invasion. Dumont’s division was not present at Perryville to face Bragg and E. Kirby Smith’s invasion of Kentucky, and shortly after, a part of his command was captured at Huntsville, Tennessee by a force under John H. Morgan. In December 1862, Dumont went on sick leave and on February 28, 1863, resigned his commission to take his seat in Congress, which he held from March 4, 1863 to March 3, 1867. While in Congress, he served as Chairman of both, the Committee on District of Columbia (1863-1864) and the Committee on Expenditures in the Department of the Interior (1865-1866). President U. S. Grant appointed Ebenezer Dumont governor of Idaho Territory, but he died in Indianapolis on April 16, 1871, before taking the oath of office. He was buried in Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.

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