On January 1, 1776, the American Congress , issued to "Eliphalet King, Gentleman" a commission as Second Lieutenant of Captain Ebenezer Huntington's Company (Third Company) in the Twenty-second Regiment of Foot, Commanded by Colonel Samuel Wyllys, in the army of the United Colonies, raised for the defense of American Liberty, and for repelling every hostile invasion thereof". This commission was signed: "By Order of the Congress, John Hancock, President-Attest Chas Thompson, Sec. January the 1st 1776". Lieutenant Eliphalet King was with his regiment before Boston when the British evacuated that city March 17, 1776, and in April 1776, he marched with his regiment, under General Washington, by way of New London and the Sound, to New York City, and assisted in its fortification. On the 24th day of August, 1776, he went with his command to the front at Brooklyn, and on the 27th day of August, 1776, he was in the Battle of Long Island, where his regiment suffered severely. His conduct in this battle was such that in September, 1776 he was promoted and made First Lieutenant of his company.
Under his first commission as Ensign of the Tenth Company, Eliphalet King fought at the Battle of Bunker Hill on June 17, 1775 and thereafter was in the expedition of General Benedict Arnold against Quebec. In that campaign Capt. Oliver Hanchett (also from Suffield) and one of his Lieutenants were taken prisoners by the British, his other Lieutenant was killed, and more than one-half of the members of their company were killed, wounded or taken prisoners. The record of the military services of Eliphalet King both as Ensign and as Lieutenant, will be found in a book published by the State of Connecticut, entitled "Record of Service of Connecticut Men in the War of the Revolution, compiled by the authority of the General Assembly under the direction of the Adjunct General of Connecticut-Hartford, 1889," at pgs 51, 92, 107 and 640. The record of his first regiment, the "Second Connecticut Line" is in that same book, pg 45.

Eliphalet had four brothers, Joseph, Thaddeus, Theodore and Ichabod, who also served the American cause as soldiers in the War of the Revolution.

He died at West Springfield, Mass, after a long and painful illness in which he suffered greatly. His son, Elijah, wrote his uncle, Ichabod, then living in Marlboro, VT., "I have the melancholy task of informing you of the death of my father, Eliphalet King. He died on Tuesday morning the 29th of August of the greatest bodily sufferings that a man could endure. He had been confined to his bed for about four months and had not walked a step since last Sept. Uncle Theodore is very low-is quite deranged in his mind. Aunt Hannah is almost helpless."

Extracted from "The King Family of Suffield, Connecticut", compiled by Cameron Haight King, 1908

Married (1) in Suffield Nov. 3, 1768 Mary Remington; (2) in Suffield Nov. Oct. 2, 1788, Silence Rumrill

Nine children by Mary Remington and seven by Silence Rumrill. Children not listed below with Silence Rumrill:

Lucy b. 11/12/1791, d. ____; unmarried
Aurelia b. 9/8/1793, d. before 1824
Sherlock b. 8/2/1796; unmarried when he moved West after 1836 (A 1850 census in Lawrence Cty, IL shows a Sherlock King, b. abt 1798 in CT, married to Mary King from CT, with three children born in IL: Mary E., Horatio, Harry)