The 16-Year-Old Revolutionary Who Outrode Paul Revere
by Valerie DeBenedette
"… the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the
eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five: Hardly a man is
now alive …" yadda yadda. Yes, the famed Paul
Revere set out on horseback on this day in 1775 to
raise the alarm that British troops were on their way
from Boston to Lexington.
Revere rode about 20 miles through what is now
Somerville, Medford, and Arlington, Massachusetts,
knocking on doors to raise people to defend
Lexington. Another rider, William Dawes, was sent
by another route to do the same thing. A third,
Samuel Prescott, was also pressed into service.
Only Prescott completed the night’s work and
reached Concord; Revere was captured and Dawes was thrown from his horse while evading British soldiers,
forcing him to walk back to Lexington.
It was a good ride for Revere, and it was good for the revolution. But a little over two years later, a 16-year-old
girl did the midnight riders one better. Sybil Ludington rode twice as far as Revere did, by herself, over bad
roads, and in an area roamed by outlaws, to raise Patriot troops to fight in the Battle of Danbury and the Battle
of Ridgefield in Connecticut. And did we mention it was raining?
Sybil was the eldest of 12 children of Col. Henry Ludington, the commander of the militia in Dutchess County,
New York. Ludington’s farm was a receiving center for information collected by spies for the American cause.
In April 1777, Colonel Ludington and the members of his militia were at their homes because it was planting
season. But about 9 p.m. on the evening of April 26, he received word that the British were burning Danbury.
The man who brought the news had worn out his horse and he didn’t know the area. Ludington needed to stay
where he was to help arrange the troops as they arrived.
Who could he send? He turned to his
daughter, who knew the area and knew
where members of the militia lived. Sybil
rode her horse from her father’s farm in
Kent, which was then called Frederick. She
first headed south to the village of Carmel
and then down to Mahopac. She turned
west to Mahopac Falls and then north to
Kent Cliffs and Farmers Mills. From there,
she rode further north to Stormville, where
she turned south to head back to her
family’s farm. All told, she rode nearly 40
miles through what was then southern
Dutchess County (which is now mostly
Putnam County).
http://mentalfloss.com/article/78686/16-year-old-revolutionary-who-outrode-paul-revere
Sybil spent the night traveling down narrow dirt roads in the rain with nothing but a stick as protection. To add
another element of danger, there were many British loyalists in the area and more than a few "Skinners," a
word generally used then to describe an outlaw or ruffian who had no real loyalties to either side in the war.
One account of her ride says that Sybil used her stick to pound on a Skinner who accosted her.
By dawn, Sybil had made it back to her family farm where the militia men were gathering with her father. By
this time, the British had gone south from Danbury to Ridgefield. The militia of Dutchess County, led by Colonel
Ludington, marched 17 miles to Ridgefield and took part in the battle there, which some considered a strategic
victory for the American forces.
Sybil’s hard riding earned her the congratulations of General George Washington, but it seems she got little
recognition for her feat after that. She married another revolutionary, Edmond Ogden, in 1784 and had a child.
At one point she and her husband ran a tavern in Catskill, New York, but she spent the last 40 years of her life
as a widow until her death in 1839. She is buried near the route of her ride in Patterson, New York, with a
headstone that spells her first name as Sibbell.
So why do we all learn about Paul Revere in our American history
courses and not Sybil Ludington? In more recent times, Sybil has
received a bit more acclaim for the ride that she made—there have
been books written about her, a postage stamp near the
bicentennial honoring her, and even a board game where players
follow her overnight path. And in 1961, the local chapter of the
Daughters of the American Revolution erected a larger-than-life
statue of her on her horse in Carmel, New York.
Revere, of course, is justly honored as a man who served the
Revolution in many capacities, including as a messenger and
engraver (by trade, he was a fine silversmith). Perhaps his place in
history was secured because he had Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
serving as his publicist, with Longfellow's famous (and famously
inaccurate) poem—it leaves out both Dawes and Prescott—turning
Revere into a legend. Sybil has no such fabled poem, no "one if by
land, two if by sea" catchphrase. But perhaps as children we all
should hear of the midnight ride of a teen with no fear.
All images courtesy Valerie DeBenedette.
http://mentalfloss.com/article/78686/16-year-old-revolutionary-who-outrode-paul-revere