LUDINGTON, Sybil [1761-1839] -- Revolutionary heroine

Wiki: Sybil Ludington

It is nine o'clock in the evening of Saturday, 26 Apr 1777. That glow on the horizon? It's Danbury! The British are burning Danbury!

Col. Henry Ludington prepares to muster his troops, 7th regiment, Dutchess Co. Militia, recruited of the whole South Precinct -- the old Philippse Patent, now Putnam County. But how can he round them up, scattered on their separate farms over a hundred square miles, and also form them up when they arrive? His mountain farm is the drill-ground and his place is there to meet them.

Sybil, his young daughter, sixteen years old only three weeks before, volunteers to ride to summon the men, allowing her father time to prepare for their arrival.

It was a dark and stormy night, with a heavy spring rain. The roads were mere dirt tracks. Sticky, sucking mud, more likely. Washouts a constant danger.

Forty miles she rode that night. Some say twenty only, as if that made it easy! In any case, it took the whole night. Family tradition holds the route to have been this: To Carmel, down the HorsePond Road, to Lake Mahopac, to Captain John Crane's house and through Red Mills to Peekskill Hollow, and back up the pike to Hortontown and Pecksville. A lot of territory for a young girl in the spring mud!

Sunday morning, Col. Ludington's regiment marched to Redding, reaching Ridgefield in time to take part in that bloody skirmish.

There is a statue in Carmel, NY, commemorating Sybil's great achievment.