Pioneering Women and Early Government Leaders

Sybil Ludington

10-cent Sybil Ludington stamp
This stamp was part of a set of four commemorative stamps honoring unrecognized heroes of the Revolutionary War issued on March 25, 1975.

Sybil Ludington was 16 years old when a messenger entered the Ludington house in Patterson, New York, on April 26, 1777. He reported that the British troops had landed in Long Island Sound, and intended to destroy the militia’s supply center in Danbury, Connecticut. Colonel Ludington was unable to leave his station, so Sybil volunteered to make the ride to inform the militia of the impending attack. She rode through the night spreading the alarm, alerting the troops in time for them to fight the British. George Washington and Alexander Hamilton noticed the heroics of the “Female Paul Revere.”