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Secondary sourceBook1907

Colonel Henry Ludington: A Memoir

Willis Fletcher Johnson · 1907

A 1907 family-commissioned memoir of Sybil Ludington's father that helped spread the story of her ride.

This family-sponsored memoir of her father helped spread and shape the story of Sybil Ludington's ride.

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Dark green book cover with a gold double-line border. Gold serif title reads COLONEL HENRY LUDINGTON, with the subtitle A Memoir in smaller gold script beneath it.
Willis Fletcher Johnson, Colonel Henry Ludington: A Memoir, 1907. Library of Congress / Internet Archive.

About this source

What it is

This is a 1907 memoir of Colonel Henry Ludington, written by Willis Fletcher Johnson and privately printed by two of Henry Ludington's grandchildren, Lavinia Elizabeth and Charles Henry Ludington. Copies are held by the Library of Congress and the Internet Archive.

Why it matters

Because this book was commissioned and printed by Henry Ludington's own descendants, it shows how a family can shape and promote the public memory of an ancestor. It is one of the main sources that spread the story of Sybil's ride more widely, more than a century after the Revolutionary War.

Look closer

  • Why might descendants want to publish a memoir of their ancestor privately rather than through a regular publisher?
  • How might a family-funded book differ from an independent historical account?
  • What clues in the book's contents (letters, commissions, maps) suggest what evidence the author actually had?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Sybil Ludington on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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