A courageous 16 year-old horse rider

When we think about the women’s movement, we mostly think about the 19th and 20th century, but do not bring our thoughts to the American Revolutionary War.

The New York militia officer and later an aide to Gen. George Washington, Henry Ludington, founder of Ludingtonville, which later became the town of Kent, New York, got the news of Gov. William Tryon’s attack on Danbury, Connecticut, some 15 miles (25 km) to the southeast, where the munitions and stores for the militia of the entire region were stored. Colonel Ludington began immediately to organize the local militia.

Ludington’s great-nephew Connecticut historian Louis S. Patrick, says Sybil Ludington her father

“bade her to take a horse, ride for the men, and tell them to be at his house by daybreak.”

Through the night the 16-year-old girl rode her horse nearly 40 miles (65 km) on unfamiliar roads around Putnam county, spreading the alarm. She ranged south to Mahopac and north to Stormville before returning home.

The city doctor Adam from the Doc in schooltime got not to know about that girl who reminds him of his daughter and her horse at age 16.

How important her charge was and how courageous she must’ve been….

He loves her story and brings it to us by his article:

The Girl and Her Horse that Changed History

She would later be commended by George Washington for her heroism and became widely celebrated in the United States of America, since around 1900. Memorial statues honour her, and books have been written about her.

She was honoured on a United States Bicentennial postage stamp that was released on March 25, 1975, which depicts her on her horse. Each April since 1979, the Sybil Ludington 50-kilometer footrace has been held in Carmel, New York. The course of this hilly road race approximates Sybil’s historic ride and finishes near the statue which was erected in her honour on the shore of Lake Gleneida, Carmel, New York.

So, when you hear the tale of Paul Revere, remember the other riders, one of which was the very courageous Sybil Ludington.

In October 1784 Sybil married Edward Ogden, a lawyer, and she lived in Unadilla until her death.