Life Sketches in Putnam History

The statue of Sybil Ludington at Lake Gleneida Why do we mark April 26th as a day to remember?

Residents of Putnam County have been riding along Sybil Ludington's route for years. We often travel through a town that wears her name, and we hardly even notice. Ludington was a heroine of the American Revolution, sprung from the same soil Putnamites plant, build on, and pave over today. She is a figure whose act of bravery on a rainy spring night 222 years ago seems unthinkably courageous now.

The daughter of Colonel Henry Ludington, she received word that the British were burning down Danbury, Connecticut. Just sixteen years old, young Sybil set out to warn and assemble his men. She began at nine on a rainsoaked night, and rode through Carmel, to Mahopac, Kent Cliffs, and homeward by dawn on her horse, Star. Colonel Ludington's men assembled, met the redcoats that morning for the Battle of Ridgefield, and drove them back to the Long Island Sound.

The first account appears in a 1901 biography of her father, written by Willis F. Johnson:

Imagination only can picture what it was a century and a quarter ago, on a dark night, with reckless bands of 'cowboys' and 'skinners' abroad in the land. But the child performed her task, clinging to a man's saddle, and guiding her steed with only a hempen halter, as she rode through the night, bearing the news of the sack of

Danbury.

Because of her relative obscurity, many accounts of her life are marred in errors regarding her lineage and family life. Many of these have only been corrected in the last decade by local Hudson Valley author, V.T. Dacquino. But the evidence of the disagreements remains even on monuments built in her honor. Even the spelling of her name varies from lace to place. The generally accepted version, "Sybil" is used on the plaque adorning her statue along Lake Gleneida. But the sign posted near the street by the Education Department in 1939 refers to her as "Sibyl". Her own grave at the Presbyterian cemetery in Patterson, reads "In Memory of Sibbell Ludington, Wife of Edmond Ogden, who died. Feb. 26, 1839. AE 77 Years 10 mos. And 21 days."

Since Johnson's history, Ludington's ride was commemorated on a postal stamp in 1975. Her exploits have been immortalized in verse, first by Wisconsin poet Berton Braley and later by Marjorie Barstow Greenbie. Many children's books have been written about her. There is even an opera about her ride, written by Lumila Ulehla of Long Island, and Putnam Valley resident Susan Schefflein. It was performed in Manhattan in 1993. The most thorough and accurate account of her life can be found in Dacquino's book, "Sybil Ludington The Call to Arms." By turns historians have treated her as a mythological figure, a proto-feminist, and a prop to interest teenagers in the study of history. Buy Sybil is much more than that. Sybil Ludington should be remembered beyond her incredible ride. Her husband, Edmond Ogden was also a war hero, forgotten in his own time. Sybil submitted documents to the War Department in 1837, asking for her rightful compensation for his service. Because she was unable to produce documents proving their marriage, she was denied. In this way, Sybil stands in for America's forgotten heroes and their widows. She courageously fended for and raised her son, almost on her own.

In truth, something of Sybil Ludington remains in the citizens of Putnam. Her ride evokes thoughts of the men and women from this area who rushed to the World Trade Center almost eight years ago. Her later life, fighting for her rights as a military widow, and helping to raise a West Point cadet, is echoed in the lives of our military families from Patterson to Cold Spring.

This brave woman is often referred to as "the female Paul Revere" - a compliment that seemingly diminishes her achievements. The comparison emphasizes her sex, rather than her daring. To call her "the female" version of anything makes her seem like an affirmative action figurine in our history, less important for what she did, than for how our recognition of her makes us feel about ourselves today.

But Sybil Ludington obviously stands on her own. Her patriotism was a common one, not rooted in abstractions like Thomas Paine's or Thomas Jefferson's, but in the land she walked and rode upon. Were it not for her, we might mark the following day, April 27, as the day our towns and villages were burned and pillaged. Great victories and defeats are easy to remember. Our Sybil Ludington should be remembered too.