This official Fleetwood First Day Cover bears a pair of the 8¢ Sybil Ludington “Contributors to the Cause” stamps issued March 25, 1975, in Carmel, New York. The cachet celebrates the American Revolution Bicentennial’s “Unheralded Heroes – Fighters for Freedom” theme and depicts the young heroine on horseback beneath the Spirit of ’76 emblem.
Sybil Ludington’s April 1777 night ride covered more than forty miles through Putnam County, New York, to muster militia against British raiders—an exploit often compared to Paul Revere’s but undertaken by a sixteen-year-old girl. The stamp and cachet together honor her place among the lesser-known patriots of the Revolution.
The Fleetwood design incorporates the Philadelphia ’76 logo and the distinctive “Youthful Heroine” inscription that appears on the stamp selvage, adding a pleasing thematic unity. No addressee appears on the cover.
A crisp, well-centered example that makes an attractive addition to any Bicentennial, Revolutionary War, or women-in-history collection.
