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April 26, 2022 11 mins

On this day in 1778, sixteen-year-old Sybil Ludington rode more than 40 miles overnight to warn American militiamen of an impending British attack.

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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio, Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class,
a show that believes you're never too old or too
young to make history. I'm Gabe Lucier, and today we're
talking about a heroic teenager who said to have braved
bad weather and evaded capture to deliver an important message

(00:24):
during the American Revolution. The day was April seventeen, seventy eight.
Sixteen year old Sibyl Luddington rode more than forty miles
overnight to warn American militiamen of an impending British attack.

(00:47):
Sibyls set out on horseback from her home in what's
now Putnam County, New York, at about nine pm that night.
By dawn the next morning, she had rode all the
way to Connecticut and back at In and had alerted
approximately four hundred militiamen along the way. Thanks to her
all night ride, American forces were able to mount a

(01:08):
counter attack in Connecticut, eventually pushing the British right back
to their boats. If you're familiar with early US history,
you're probably thinking this story sounds a lot like the
midnight ride of Paul Revere. The famous silversmith and Sons
of Liberty patriot who rode through Boston warning residents that
the British were coming. In reality, Paul Revere was just

(01:32):
one of many notable night riders who launched desperate bids
to spread the word of British movements. In fact, two
other men, William Dawes and Samuel Prescott, were on the
road the same night as Paul Revere, spreading the same
news along different routes. All of these riders provided a
crucial service to their fellow colonists, but it's worth noting

(01:55):
that Sybil reportedly rode more than twice the distance of
the others, and not for nothing. She was also much younger,
more than twenty years younger in the case of Paul Revere.
Sibyl Luddington was born on April fifth, seventeen sixty one,
in Fredericksburg, New York. She was the eldest of twelve

(02:15):
children born to Henry and Abigail Luddington. Sybil's father was
Colonel Henry Luddington. He had made a name for himself
fighting for the British during the French and Indian War,
but by the seventeen seventies he had sided with the
colonists in the fight for American independence. His farm in Paterson,
New York became a stopping point for American spies to

(02:38):
pass on the information they'd collected. As the commander of
his local militia, Luddington was able to either coordinate a
response to these reported threats or to make sure the
information got to someone who could. At just before nine
o'clock on the evening of April seventeen seventy seven, Colonel
Luttington received word that British soldiers were in the process

(03:01):
of burning the town of dan Berry, Connecticut. The town
was a key supply post for the Continental Army, and
losing all the food and weapons and munitions that were
stowed there would be a punishing blow to the American cause.
According to the messenger, General gold Selek Silliman was requesting
that the county Militia joined the fight for dan Berry

(03:22):
as reinforcements. There was a problem, though a few weeks earlier,
the members of Luddington's militia would have been nearby and
ready to fight at a moment's notice, but in late
April they had all scattered to their respective farms because
it was planting season. Someone would have to ride through
the countryside and the dead of night to wake them

(03:43):
up and send them over to Luddington's farm. For a minute,
it didn't seem like anyone was up to the task.
The colonel needed to stay put in order to direct
the troops once they arrived at his farm. The messenger
would have gone back out himself, but his horse was
ex usted from the ride there, and besides, he wasn't
all that familiar with the area, so finding the isolated

(04:06):
farms of the various militiamen would have taken him much
more time than they had. That's where Sibyl came in.
She knew where each member of the militia lived and
could reach them all before daybreak if she acted quickly.
Some accounts say Sybil was asked to take the ride
by her father, while others report that she volunteered for
the job herself. In either case, Sibyl mounted her horse,

(04:29):
named Star, and set out into the night to warn
that Danberry was under attack. First, she rode south to
the village of Carmel and then further down into Mayo
pac before turning north to Kent Mills, Farmer Mills, and
then on to Stormville. She rode through a rainstorm over muddy,
unmarked roads, and at every stop along her route, Sybil

(04:52):
banged on doors with a stick and shouted that the
British were sacking Danberry. She called for the militia to
assemble at her father's farm, ready to march in defense
of the town. After riding through Stormville, Sybil turned south
and headed for home. She arrived at dawn and discovered
that nearly the entire regiment had heeded her call, some

(05:13):
four hundred men in total. The militias set out for
Danberry early that morning, but by the time they arrived
it was too late. British soldiers had already looted all
the food and munitions they could carry and burned everything else,
including the rest of the town. However, the fight wasn't
over just yet. Luddington's militia followed the British seventeen miles

(05:36):
south the Ridge Field, where they then joined forces with
other American militias. The next morning, on April, the British
troops were soundly defeated at the Battle of Ridgefield. The
Americans had lost their Danberry stronghold, but they successfully cut
off the British advance and sent their enemies retreating to
the sea. As for Sybil, she married a fellow revolutionary

(06:01):
named Edmund Ogden and had a son together named Henry,
named after her father. The couple ran a tavern together
in Catskill, New York, but after her husband died prematurely,
she spent the rest of her life as a widow
until her death in eighteen thirty nine. Her wartime efforts
were reportedly acknowledged during her lifetime by General George Washington,

(06:23):
but after that there wasn't much talk of Sibyl's midnight
ride until nearly a hundred years later. In eighteen fifty four,
Sibyl's nephew wrote a letter asking that she be included
in a ceremony dedicated to heroes of the American Revolution.
My aunt Sybil, he wrote, rode on horseback in the

(06:44):
dead of night through a country infested with cowboys and
skinners to inform General Putnam in case you're wondering. The
skinners mentioned in the letter were a roving gang of
outlaws who pledged no loyalty to either side of the war.
Her nephew's letter is the earliest known report of Sybil's ride,

(07:05):
but there were others Not long after. In eighteen eighty,
a New York history book recounted the episode, though the
author only said she had gotten her information from the
Luddington family and didn't cite specific sources. There was also
a biography of Colonel Luddington released in nineteen oh seven
that included mention of Sybil's ride, but it's worth noting

(07:27):
that the book was privately funded by Luddington's grandchildren and
once again relied solely on family accounts. Of course, there's
nothing inherently strange about sibyl story being forgotten for over
a hundred years. In fact, the same thing happened with
Paul Revere. He didn't become a household name until the
late nineteenth century, around the same time Sybil came to prominence.

(07:52):
That timing wasn't a coincidence either. Eighteen seventy six mark
the country's centennial celebration, and in the patriotic build up
to that event, there was a renewed interest in colonial history.
This prompted many Americans to share old family stories for
the first time, with some of the most interesting ones
becoming a matter of public knowledge. All of this is

(08:15):
to say that Sybil Luddington was absolutely a real person,
and it's entirely possible that her actions unfolded just as
you've heard them today. However, because there is no impartial
historical evidence of Sybil's ride, it's still a matter of
debate among many historians. Of course, Sybil has no shortage

(08:35):
of supporters either. In nineteen seventy five, the US Postal
Service featured an illustration of her on horseback for a
series of commemorative stamps honoring the unsung heroes of the
Revolutionary War. There's also an annual Sibyl Luddington Ultra Marathon
that follows the same route the teenagers believed to have
taken in seventeen seventy eight. More recently, sibyl story was

(09:00):
dramatized on Comedy Central's Drunk History Show, which might not
be the most authoritative source for history, but is still
a sign of how much more well known Sybils become
in the last few decades. Plenty of reputable outlets, authors,
and organizations still believe the story of Sibyl Luttington's midnight ride,

(09:21):
but even those who don't still recognize the value in
what her story represents for example, in Paula D. Hunt
published a paper in the New England Quarterly examining how
Sybil's place in history has changed along with American culture
and politics. She's clear about the lack of definitive evidence

(09:42):
for Sibyl's ride, but she also recognizes that ambiguity doesn't
invalidate the story. As she says at the end of
her paper, quote Sybil Luttington has embodied the possibilities, courage, individuality,
loyalty that Americans of different genders, generations, and political persuasions

(10:02):
have considered to be the highest aspirations for themselves and
for their country. The story of a lone teenage girl
writing for freedom, it seems, is simply too good not
to be believed. I'm Gabe Louisier and hopefully you now
know a little more about history today than you did yesterday.

(10:26):
If you want to keep up with the show, you
can follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram at t
d I HC Show, and if you have any comments
or suggestions, you can always send them my way at
this day at I heeart media dot com. Thanks to
Chandler Mays for producing the show, and thanks to you
for listening. I'll see you back here again tomorrow for

(10:47):
another day in history class.

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