SYBIL LUDINGTON’S RIDE. I asked Annalisa if I should post on Sybil Ludington’s ride, and she said that I certainly should. During the Revolutionary War, Sybil at the age of 16 made a 40 mile ride at night to rally Colonial troops. This article from American National Biography Online tells the story. Her father was the colonel of a local militia unit. The British attacked Danbury, Connecticut on April 26, 1777. A family history from 1907 says:
“At eight or nine o’clock that evening a jaded horseman reached Colonel Ludington’s home with the news [of the fall of Danbury].. . . But what to do? [Ludington’s] regiment was disbanded; its members scattered at their homes [for April planting]. He must stay there to muster all who came in. The messenger from Danbury could ride no more, and there was no neighbor within call. In this emergency he turned to his daughter Sybil, who, a few days before, had passed her sixteenth birthday, and bade her to take a horse, ride for the men, and tell them to be at his house by daybreak. One who even rides now from Carmel to Cold Spring will find rugged and dangerous roads . . . but the child performed her task, clinging to a man’s saddle, and guiding her steed with only a hempen halter. . . .” By daybreak, almost the whole regiment was mustered, although the British got away to Long Island Sound.