11. Sybil Ludington rode more than twice the distance of Paul Revere – maybe
On April 26, 1777, a sixteen year old New York girl named Sybil Ludington rode across Putnam County, New York and Danbury, Connecticut to alert the local militias of an impending attack by British regular troops, according to lore local to the area. While modern scholars debate whether the ride took place, local history celebrates her accomplishing a trip which was more than twice as long as that undertaken by Paul Revere (and others) in Massachusetts two years earlier. While local tales relate that Sybil was personally congratulated for her feat by George Washington, no evidence of her ride existed before 1880, when it was reported in a book by a local historian.
