Born on April 5, 1761, in Fredericksburg (now Ludingtonville), New York, Sybil Ludington was the daughter of Henry Ludington, a noted New York militia officer and later an aide to General George Washington. On April 26, 1777, a messenger reached the Ludington house with news of Governor William Tryon╒s attack on Danbury, Connecticut, some 15 miles 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. The messenger and his horse being exhausted, Sybil volunteered to bear the order for muster and to rouse the countryside. Through the night the sixteen-year-old girl rode her horse nearly 40 miles on unfamiliar roads around Putnam County, spreading the alarm. She ranged south to Mahopac and north to Stormville before returning home. In October 1784 Sybil married Edward Ogden, a lawyer, and she lived in Unadilla, New York, until her death on February 26, 1839.
