On April 25, 1777, a force of 2,000 redcoats landed at Westport, Connecticut and marched on Danbury. There they burned homes and destroyed rebel supplies. The raid was similar to the one on Concord, Massachusetts a year earlier. Col. Henry Ludington was in command of the militia forces in the area. A messenger arrived at his home that night with word of the raid and a plea that he call out the militia to prevent further depredations. He realized he would have to stay home to organize his men as they gathered. He needed to get the word to them, so he asked his sixteen-year old daughter Sybil to play the role of Paul Revere. Sybil took the family horse and rode out that night to warn the patriots and to get word to her father’s soldiers. She risked her life riding on dark roads frequented by highwaymen and other outlaws. She would stop at houses saying: “There’s trouble. Bring your gun. The British are burning Danbury. The colonel wants you right away.” By the next afternoon, almost all her father’s regiment had assembled. It turned the British back at Ridgefield, Connecticut. But Sybil got no recognition. Longfellow did not write a poem about her.
– Bathroom I 340-341
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