7. The Girl Who Outrode Paul Revere
Paul Revere’s eighteen-mile nighttime ride, April 18th, 1775, to warn the colonial militia of the approaching British, cemented his place in history. Especially after it got dramatized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Paul Revere’s Ride. In 1777, Sybil Ludington (1761 – 1839) made a forty-mile midnight ride to warn the colonial militia of approaching British troops. That was more than twice as far as Paul Revere’s ride, and she did it when she was only sixteen.
Sybil Ludington was born in Fredericksburg (now Ludington), the eldest of twelve siblings. Her father, Henry Ludington, was a New York militia officer, and later an aide to George Washington. On the night of April 26th, 1777, word reached the Ludington household that New York’s British governor, general William Tryon, was about to attack nearby Danbury, Connecticut, where the supplies and munitions for the entire region’s militia were stored.