Epaphroditus Champion Sr. (April 6, 1756 – December 22, 1834) was an American military officer and politician who lived in Connecticut. Henry Champion was his father. Epaphroditus Champion served in the Connecticut Assembly and as a U.S. Representative from Connecticut.
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Early life
Champion was born in Colchester in the Connecticut Colony, son of Colonel Henry Champion and Deborah (Brainard) Champion. He was educated both by private tutors and in the common schools.
One of Champion's brothers, Henry Champion, was a major in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and served in the Connecticut state house of representatives.
Career
During the American Revolutionary War, Connecticut Governor Jonathan Trumbull directed Champion's father, Connecticut state commissary Colonel Henry Champion, to collect cattle and drive them to Valley Forge. Champion helped his father gather a herd of 300 cattle at Hartford, Connecticut and drive them west to King's Ferry, across the Hudson, into New Jersey, across the Delaware to Washington's famished troops west of the Schuylkill. They were devoured in five days prompting Champion to remark that the cattle were so thoroughly eaten that "you might have made a knife out of every bone." Champion was named assistant commissary to Trumbull in 1776, and was the first Commissary General of the Continental Army.