Sybil

Sybil on Horse

Sybil Riding

Map of Sybil's Ride from
Sybil Ludington: The Call
to Arms

Sybil Ludington: Female Paul Revere

by Susan Groves - Center Street Elementary - El Segundo Unified

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I. Sybil Ludington's Life Story

We know about Sybil Ludington from letters, records, books, and articles written by people who lived when she lived. There is even a letter written by Sybil herself. There are also birth, marriage, and death records on file that give us information.

Sybil's Childhood

Sybil Ludington was the oldest of 12 children. She was born April 5, 1761, and lived in Dutchess County, New York. Since she was the oldest child, she was expected to help out with the raising of her brothers and sisters.

Her family had a gristmill, where wheat and grains are ground into flour, and a sawmill. The mill was built mostly by the women because the men were away in military service at the time. The family did a good business in the mill.

Sybil had a horse named Star. She was a good rider and enjoyed riding Star.

Sybil's Father

Sybil’s father was Colonel Henry Ludington. He was called The Colonel. He fought in the French-Indian War, and later served in the militia. He led a regiment of 400 men. Since the Colonel and his men were fighting in the Revolutionary War for freedom from Great Britain, he was gone from home for long periods. During his absences, Sybil and her sister Rebecca kept guard over the family home.

Sybil's Ride

When Sybil was 16, her father needed her help.
The Colonel had sent his men home to work on their farms. On the night of April 26, 1777, news came that the British were burning the nearby city of Danbury. The Colonel needed someone to ride and tell the men to meet at his home so they could defend the city. It was a dark, stormy night and the only one who could go was Sybil. So Sybil rode Star for 40 miles in the rain to alert The Colonel’s men.

Sybil's Later Years

Not much is known about Sybil’s life after her famous ride. She stayed at home until she was 23, to help raise the other children in her family. She then married Edmond Ogden and had one son, named Henry. She outlived Edmond, and she died when she was 77 years old.

Sybil was a teenage heroine who, through her courage and strength, helped in our country’s fight for independence.

II. Sybil Ludington's Ride

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 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.

III. Poems

Most people have heard or read the poem, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. But few have heard the poem, Sybil Ludington’s Ride, by Berton Braley.

Longfellow’s poem begins,

“Listen my children and you shall hear
of the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere.
On the eighteenth of April in Seventy-Five;
Hardly a man is now alive,
Who remembers that famous day and year.”

Braley’s poem begins,

“Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of a lovely feminine Paul Revere
Who rode an equally famous ride
Through a different part of the countryside,
Where Sybil Ludington’s name recalls
A ride as daring as that of Paul’s.”

Many other writers have written poems, songs, articles, and stories about Sybil as well. Sybil was important because she helped our country to gain its independence from England.