Thursday, June 27, 2024

Sybil Ludington and the Raid on Danbury

Wednesday, September 13 - July 6
2:30 pm - 3:30 pm

On April 25th, 1777, General William Tryon and 2,000 British troops landed on the shores of Compo Beach. Their mission was simple but ambitious: to burn the major Continental Army supply depot of Danbury, Connecticut located about 24 miles from the Coast. On the night of their raid, a 16-year-old girl, Sybil Ludington, would commence a forty mile midnight ride to alert Patriot militia of the unfolding British attack. BHC assistant archivist Jaime Pettit will give a special presentation, following the movements of Tryon’s militia from to their landing at Compo Beach to Raid on Danbury and the Battle of Ridgefield, as well as Sybil Ludington’s fabled act of extraordinary Revolutionary War heroism.

July 6th, 2:30pm
925 Broad Street
Burroughs-Saden Library
3rd Floor Program Room
Bridgeport. CT

Jaime Pettit
Jaime Pettit serves as an Assistant Archivist at the Bridgeport History Center at the Bridgeport, Connecticut Public Library. She received a Masters' in Information Science at the University of Michigan and a Certification in Museum Studies at Harvard University. She has previously worked with the University of Michigan and Arizona State University's departments of archeology. Pettit's current projects combine her love for both history and writing to highlight interesting and lesser-known stories from Bridgeport and Connecticut.