Sybil Ludington | American Revolutionary War heroine
Ludington was the daughter of Henry Ludington, a New York militia officer and later an aide to Gen. George Washington. According to accounts generally attributed to the Ludington family and first published more than 100 years later, on April 26, 1777, a messenger reached the Ludington house with 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. Whether Sybil volunteered (as is often recounted) ...