the part performed by the militia and militia officers in the war of the revolution does not seem always to have received the historical recognition which it deserves. it was really of great importance, especially in southern new england and the middle states, at times actually rivaling and often indispensably supplementing that of the regular continental army. it will not be invidious to say that of all the militia none was of more importance or rendered more valuable services than those regiments which occupied the disputed border country between the american and british lines, and which guarded the bases of supplies and the routes of communication. there was probably no region in which borderland friction was more severe and intrigues more sinister than that which lay between the british in new york city and the americans at the highlands of the hudson, nor was there a highway of travel and communication more important than that which led from hartford in connecticut to fishkill and west point in new york.

it is the purpose of the present volume to present the salient features of the public career of a militia colonel who was perhaps most of all concerned in holding that troublous territory for the american[viii] cause, in guarding that route of travel and supply, and in serving the government of the state of new york, to whose seat his territorial command was so immediately adjacent. it is intended to be merely a memoir of henry ludington, together with such a historical setting as may seem desirable for a just understanding of the circumstances of his life and its varied activities. it makes no pretense of giving a complete genealogy of the ludington family in america, either before or after his time, but confines itself to his own direct descent and a few of his immediate descendants. the facts of his life, never before compiled, have been gleaned from many sources, including colonial, revolutionary and state records, newspaper files, histories and diaries, correspondence, various miscellaneous manuscript collections, and some oral traditions of whose authenticity there is substantial evidence. the most copious and important data have been secured from the manuscript collections of two of henry ludington’s descendants, mr. lewis s. patrick, of marinette, wisconsin, who has devoted much time and painstaking labor to the work of searching for and securing authentic information of his distinguished ancestor, and mr. charles henry ludington, of new york, who has received many valuable papers and original documents and records from a descendant of sibyl ludington ogden, henry ludington’s first-born child. it is much regretted that among all these data, no portrait of henry ludington[ix] is in existence, and that therefore none can be given in this book. in addition, the old records of charlestown and malden, massachusetts, and of branford, east haven and new haven, connecticut, the collections of the connecticut historical society, the early annals of new york, especially in the french and indian and the revolutionary wars, and the publications of the new england genealogical society, have also been utilized, together with the papers of governor george clinton, lossing’s “field book of the revolution,” blake’s and pelletreau’s histories of putnam county, smith’s “history of dutchess county,” bolton’s “history of westchester county,” and other works, credit to which is given in the text of this volume. it is hoped that this brief and simple setting forth of the public services of henry ludington during the formative period of our country’s history will prove of sufficient interest to the members of his family and to others to justify the printing of this memoir.