Just as a DJ at a wedding reception or an AM radio host takes requests from listeners, this week's column is written because of a reader's request. Former Norwich Historian, Patricia Scott, suggested that readers would enjoy the Revolutionary War legend of Sybil Ludington and how she earned her bronze statue in a public square. I agree.
In April of 1777, when Sybil was just 16 years old, she did a very adult-like thing. Sybil made an all-night horseback ride alerting minutemen in New York's Hudson Valley of the advance of a British army raiding party. Many historians thought Poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow should have made Sybil the subject of his famed Midnight Ride poem instead of Paul Revere.
Sybil Ludington was the eldest of 12 children from parents Abigail and Henry. Sybil and her family lived on a farm in Dutchess County, which lies between the Hudson River and the Connecticut state line. During the Revolutionary War, this area was of strategic importance. It was also a hotbed of emotions and clashes between the rebels and the loyalists to the Crown.
Sybil's father, Henry, was a veteran of the French and Indian war of the 1750s. Others called it the Sever Years war. Either way, Henry Ludington, in 1777, was a farmer, but still an experienced soldier. He was in charge of approximately 400 Dutchess County area militiamen fighting for independence from Britain's King George III.
Some of Henry Ludington's neighbors felt the Colonel was a traitor to the King of England. The loyalist neighbors made plans to go to the Ludington's home under cover of night to seize him, and then turn him over to the British army. The eldest daughter, Sybil, devised a plan to protect her father.
The night of the planned kidnapping, Sybil lit lanterns around the outside of their home. She then had her siblings march around the farmhouse, back and forth in a military manner. In the candlelight, her numerous brothers and sisters cast a silhouette that appeared as militiamen on guard duty, which scared away the loyalists.
Sybil's exploits continued. On April 26, 1777, Colonel Ludington received intelligence reports that a contingent of British soldiers were marching towards a continental army supply depot at nearby Danbury, Connecticut. The intent of the British was to destroy the supplies and burn Danbury. Colonel Ludington needed time to gather his troops and plan the Danbury supply defense, but he couldn't do both.
Daughter Sybil becomes the heroine of this story by climbing on a fast horse and riding a circuit of Dutchess County. Sybil rode about 40 miles, all through the rainy night, alerting militiamen to muster at the Ludington farm.
She also alerted sympathetic residents on her route that "the British are coming!" while avoiding British loyalists' homes. Sybil's ride in the rain was more than double the distance of Paul Revere's ride from Boston to Lexington a week earlier on April 18, 1777. After riding all through the night, Sybil returned home the following morning soaking wet to see hundreds of militia were gathered at her father's farm awaiting movement orders.
After the war, a few years later, Sybil, at the age of 23, married Edward Ogden, and they moved to Catskill, New York. While in Catskill, the Ogdens had a son, Harry. In 1799, Edward died of yellow fever, leaving Sybil, a widow at age 38. Although not a veteran of the revolution, Sybil attempted to receive a soldier's pension to support herself, but it was denied. Years later, in 1811, Sybil moved with her son and his new wife to Unadilla, New York, where she lived out her life, dying there in 1839 at 77.
It wasn't until 1935 when the Daughters of the American Revolution placed historical markers along Sybil's route that she began to receive posthumous fame. In 1961 a statue of Sybil Ludington astride a galloping horse was placed in front of the Danbury, Connecticut library. This was to honor her actions to protect Danbury from the British.
Almost all accounts of the life of Sybil Ludington were unwritten and passed down by her family, making it is easy for some to call this a myth. However, before this story is forgotten or erased from history, it needed to be told. Let's hope Sybil's bronze likeness in Danbury doesn't soon disappear because of some twisted racist or sexist excuse in our nation’s rush to revise US history.