Midnight Rides In April
With April being National Poetry Month, I always like to revisit some of my favorite poems. One of those is “Paul Revere's Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It starts:
The poem goes on to tell how Revere waited for a signal of lights in the Old North Church belfry to show if the British Army was advancing by land or by sea. With the lights in place, he took off riding to alert the members of the militia so they could be ready. The poem tells he left at midnight and by 1 a.m. was in Lexington and by 2 a.m. he was in Concord. Because of Revere, the militia was ready to stop the advancing British Regulars.
As beautiful as that poem is, history tells us that it didn't happen quite as Longfellow writes. Revere was joined by another rider that night, William Dawes. The two of them set out on different roads, with the plan to meet in Lexington. There they met with Samuel Adams and John Handcock. After the meeting, they were tasked with riding onto Concord, while other riders were sent to other towns. They joined with Samuel Prescott on the road to Concord. The three men were stopped by a British Army Patrol. Prescott escaped and made it to Concord, Dawes also escaped but he was unable to finish his ride, and Revere was captured and questioned before being released.
The library has the poem for you to read but my favorite version is:
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, illustrated by Christopher H. Bing.
This version has historical facts and other interesting information along with Longfellow's poem.
You can also find biographies and other nonfiction works on Paul Revere and his ride.
Two years after Revere's ride, there was another ride taken by a lone rider to alert the local militia about an attack from the British Regulars. On the night of April 26, 1777, 16-year-old Sybil Ludington rode through the villages of Putnam County, NY, and Danbury, CT. This ride is considered to be twice as long as the ride Revere and Dawes made and she was much younger.
Like Revere's ride, the militia knew the British Regulars were on their way, but Colonel Ludington, Sybil's father, needed a rider to go and rally the troops. Sybil volunteered and rode 40 miles to alert the men under her father's command that the Regulars were attacking Danbury. It was a rainy night so the roads were treacherous - she even encountered highwaymen that she fought off with either a stick or a pistol (depending on the version you read).
Colonel Ludington's troops were too late to save Danbury, but they marched on to the Battle of Ridgefield. Again depending on the account you read, they either didn't make it in time or they were able to participate in the battle. All accounts do report that Ludington's men taunted General Tryon and his men all the way to Long Island Sound.
Sybil was congratulated by friends and neighbors for her act of bravery. She was also visited by General Washington and received a letter from Alexander Hamilton congratulating her on her successful ride. In 1935, New York State placed markers along most of the route that she rode that night, and there are statues in her honor in the area. In 1975, she was honored on a US Postage Stamp and since 1979 there is an ultramarathon run in Carmel, NY - the Sybil Ludington 50k Run - that for the most part traces her ride.
There are only a few books about Sybil in our collection, but she does appear in books like:
Listen, my children, and you shall hear
Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere,
On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:
Hardly a man is now alive
Who remembers that famous day and year.
The poem goes on to tell how Revere waited for a signal of lights in the Old North Church belfry to show if the British Army was advancing by land or by sea. With the lights in place, he took off riding to alert the members of the militia so they could be ready. The poem tells he left at midnight and by 1 a.m. was in Lexington and by 2 a.m. he was in Concord. Because of Revere, the militia was ready to stop the advancing British Regulars.
As beautiful as that poem is, history tells us that it didn't happen quite as Longfellow writes. Revere was joined by another rider that night, William Dawes. The two of them set out on different roads, with the plan to meet in Lexington. There they met with Samuel Adams and John Handcock. After the meeting, they were tasked with riding onto Concord, while other riders were sent to other towns. They joined with Samuel Prescott on the road to Concord. The three men were stopped by a British Army Patrol. Prescott escaped and made it to Concord, Dawes also escaped but he was unable to finish his ride, and Revere was captured and questioned before being released.
The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, illustrated by Christopher H. Bing.
This version has historical facts and other interesting information along with Longfellow's poem.
You can also find biographies and other nonfiction works on Paul Revere and his ride.
Two years after Revere's ride, there was another ride taken by a lone rider to alert the local militia about an attack from the British Regulars. On the night of April 26, 1777, 16-year-old Sybil Ludington rode through the villages of Putnam County, NY, and Danbury, CT. This ride is considered to be twice as long as the ride Revere and Dawes made and she was much younger.
Like Revere's ride, the militia knew the British Regulars were on their way, but Colonel Ludington, Sybil's father, needed a rider to go and rally the troops. Sybil volunteered and rode 40 miles to alert the men under her father's command that the Regulars were attacking Danbury. It was a rainy night so the roads were treacherous - she even encountered highwaymen that she fought off with either a stick or a pistol (depending on the version you read).
Colonel Ludington's troops were too late to save Danbury, but they marched on to the Battle of Ridgefield. Again depending on the account you read, they either didn't make it in time or they were able to participate in the battle. All accounts do report that Ludington's men taunted General Tryon and his men all the way to Long Island Sound.
Sybil was congratulated by friends and neighbors for her act of bravery. She was also visited by General Washington and received a letter from Alexander Hamilton congratulating her on her successful ride. In 1935, New York State placed markers along most of the route that she rode that night, and there are statues in her honor in the area. In 1975, she was honored on a US Postage Stamp and since 1979 there is an ultramarathon run in Carmel, NY - the Sybil Ludington 50k Run - that for the most part traces her ride.
There are only a few books about Sybil in our collection, but she does appear in books like:
- Amelia R., Information Technology
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