You may have heard of the Ride of Paul Revere in April 1775. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a famous poem about Paul Revere’s ride. Paul Revere had three people to help him ride to warn the colonists of coming of the British.
Sybil Ludington was a 16-year-old girl who rode alone over 40 miles in the dark of night to rally her father’s soldiers. Her ride took place two years after Paul Revere’s ride, yet little is know or written about her heroic deed
Sybil's Heroic Ride
Sybil Ludington’s father needed her help on the night of April 26, 1777. The British were burning the town of Danbury and Colonel Ludington needed someone to ride and alert his men.
Sybil and her horse, Star, were the only ones who could go.
So she set out on that cold, dark, rainy night. She rode 40 miles through forests, and over the countryside to tell her father’s regiment to muster at the Ludington home. To muster means to gather together.
There were skinners about in the forests. Skinners were men who attacked people to get their money, belongings, or their horses. Sybil
and Star sometimes had to hide so the skinners would not see them.
Sybil was cold, wet, and frightened, but she kept on riding, kept on knocking on doors to wake the men and tell them to muster at the Ludington’s home. When she arrived home in the morning she found Colonel Ludington’s 400 men in her front yard ready to fight the British.
Because of her heroic ride, the regiment was able to drive back the British and to save the lives of many people. General George
Washington came to the Ludington home to personally thank Sybil for her efforts.dington home to personally thank Sybil for her efforts.
After the Ride
Few people knew of Sybil’s ride until an article appeared in a magazine in 1907 about her heroic deed. That was 130 years after she and Star rode to warn the men. Then people became interested in what she had done.
In 1975, the U.S. Postal Department issued a Sybil Ludington stamp. Today there are markers along the highway, marking the route of her ride. There is also a statue of Sybil riding Star in Carmel, New York.
She is buried in the Presbyterian cemetery in Patterson, New York, alongside her father and mother.
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