The Forgotten Patriot

 

We’ve all heard of Paul Revere, and some of us can recite at least part of Longfellow’s famous poem: “Listen my children and you shall hear/Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere.” A quick bullet-point review of Revere’s life:

• Paul Revere was a silversmith.
• He took part in the Boston Tea Party.
• He devised a system of lanterns to alert the colonists of a British invasion (one if by land, two if by sea….), and on April 18, 1775, he rode from Boston to Lexington to warn of an attack.
• Revere fathered 16 children by two wives.
• He was also an engraver, a dentist, and a master goldsmith.
• He manufactured gunpowder and cannons for the Continental Army and printed the country’s first money.
• He was a Freemason.
• He died in 1818 at the age of 76.

You are no doubt familiar with many of the facts about Paul Revere, but chances are you’ve never heard of Sybil Ludington, sometimes referred to as the Female Paul Revere. Sybil (spelled “Sibbell” on her tombstone) was born in 1761 in Fredericksburg (now Ludingtonville), New York.

Sybil was the oldest of the twelve children of Colonel Henry and Abigail Ludington. Colonel Ludington served in the French and Indian War and was loyal to the British Crown until 1773, when his ideology changed and he declared his loyalty to the revolutionary cause. Because of his prior military experience, the local militia promoted him to colonel of the unit, which meant that he was in charge of organizing and training the militiamen to be prepared for British attacks.

On April 26, 1777, two years after Revere’s ride, British General William Tryon attacked Danbury, Connecticut, with 2000 British troops, intending to burn the supply depot there. Danbury was only 15 miles from Colonel Ludington’s land in Fredericksburg, which served as a strategic point between Connecticut and Long Island; therefore, Fredericksburg was vulnerable to an attack by British troops wanting to secure the route.

A rider was dispatched from Danbury to alert Colonel Ludington to prepare his militia for an imminent attack, but Ludington’s militia had been dismissed for planting season. Furthermore, the rider’s horse was exhausted, and the rider did not know the local area. Enter 16-year-old Sybil.

Whether her father asked for her assistance or she volunteered, Sybil mounted her horse Star, and armed only with a stick, she rode 40 miles through heavy rain through Putnam County, using her stick to bang on the shutters of houses, shouting, “The British are burning Danbury! Muster at Ludington’s at daybreak!” By the end of her ride, most of the 400 militiamen had been alerted.

Sybil returned home at dawn, soaking wet and exhausted. But as a result of her escapade, the Ludington militia was able to join forces with the Continental Army at the Battle of Ridgefield the following day, driving General Tryon and the British forces back to their fleet. Sybil was thanked for her heroism not only by her grateful neighbors, but also by General George Washington himself.

How much of Sybil’s nighttime ride is truth and how much is fiction is debatable. Some historians have cast doubt on the story, questioning whether the horse was named Star, whether or not she carried a stick (one account claims that she used it to ward off an attack), and whether or not she was commended by Washington.

Some “experts” state that there is no reliable historical evidence that she ever rode at all. What is not doubted is that Sybil and her story faded into history until 1880, when Martha J. Lamb mentioned Sybil in her History of the City of New York.

Although Sybil Ludington did not get as much recognition for her ride as did Paul Revere, she has since received some of the recognition that she deserves, beyond a brief mention in Lamb’s book. In 1907, two of her grandchildren published a biography of Colonel Ludington which gives a detailed account of her ride.

Sybil was memorialized in a poem by Berton Braley in 1912. Written in the form and style of Longfellow’s poem about Paul Revere, Sybil Ludington’s Ride, begins, “Listen, my children, and you shall hear/ Of a lovely feminine Paul Revere….”

In the 1930’s the New York State Education Department posted historical markers along Sybil’s probable route, and in 1940, a statue of Sybil and her horse Star was erected in Carmel, New York. The plaque underneath the statue reads:

“Sybil Ludington—Revolutionary War Heroine, April 26, 1777. Called out the volunteer militia by riding through the night, alone, on horseback, at the age of 16, alerting the countryside to the burning of Danbury, Conn, by the British.”

There are now books about Sybil Ludington, and there is even a board game, Ludington’s Ride. Ludington became the 35^th woman to be honored on a postage stamp in 1975, as part of the Contributors to the Cause series, a set of four commemorative stamps honoring unrecognized heroes of the Revolutionary War.

 

Like Paul Revere, there is no mention on Ludington’s grave marker of her contribution to the American Revolution. But regardless of how much of Sybil Ludington’s ride is fact and how much is embellishment, there is little doubt that she deserves at least a tip of the hat for being a contributor to the creation of these United States. From Bralen’s poem:

“Such is the legend of Sybil’s ride

To summon the men from the countryside

A true tale, making her title clear

As a lovely feminine Paul Revere!”

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Epilogue: Following the Revolutionary War, Sybil married Edmond Ogden, a farmer and innkeeper. They had one son named Henry. She died in Catskill, New York in 1839, at the age of 77. She is buried near her father in Patterson, New York.

 

Sources for the information in this article:

History in the Remaking

Sybil Ludington Was the Female Version of Paul Revere

Was There Really a Teenage, Female Paul Revere?

Revolutionary War Hero… The Female Paul Revere

Sybil Ludington: The 16-Year-Old Revolutionary Hero