Colonel Ludington was commonly known by his military title to the end of his life. As a matter of fact, however, he ceased to exercise the functions of a colonel on September 27, 1786. An act of the Legislature of New York of April 4, 1782, provided that “in case of the death, resignation or other inability to serve, of any Colonel now commanding a regiment (of militia), no Colonel shall thereafter be appointed thereto; that such regiment and all others not now commanded by a Colonel shall henceforth be commanded by a Lieutenant-Colonel.” This act was doubtless largely the outcome of the deliberations of the committee on reorganization of the militia of which Colonel Ludington was a member. At the date named in 1786, accordingly, he retired from the command of the regiment with which he had so long been identified, and was succeeded by Lieutenant-Colonel Drake. In this regiment Archibald Ludington and Henry Ludington, Jr., sons of Colonel Ludington, were, respectively, paymaster and ensign. Henry Ludington, Jr., became lieutenant in the regiment commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel Elias Van Benschoten, and on June 7, 1793, when John Drake moved away from Dutchess County and was succeeded in command of Ludington’s old regiment by Lieutenant-Colonel Elijah Townsend, Henry Ludington, Jr., became a captain and Archibald Ludington paymaster in it. Henry Ludington, Jr., filled that place until March 16, 1797, when, owing to his removal from Dutchess County, he resigned and was succeeded by Samuel Smith. Archibald Ludington was succeeded by Stephen Waring on March 23, 1803. The commission of Henry Ludington, Jr., as lieutenant, is preserved in the possession of Charles H. Ludington, and reads as follows:
THE PEOPLE of the State of NEW-YORK, By the Grace of GOD, free and independent;
To Henry Ludinton, Junior, Gentleman, Greeting:
We, reposing especial Trust and Confidence, as well in your Patriotism, Conduct and Loyalty, as is your Valour and Readiness to do us good and faithful Service; HAVE appointed and constituted, and by these Presents, DO appoint and constitute you, the said Henry Ludinton, Junior, Lieutenant of a Company in the Regiment of Militia in the County of Dutchess, whereof John Drake, Esquire, is Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant.
You are therefore, to take the said Company into your Charge and Care, as Lieutenant thereof, and duly to exercise the Officers and Soldiers of that Company in Arms, who are hereby commanded to obey you as you shall from Time to Time receive from our General and Commander in Chief of the Militia of our said State, or any other your superior Officer, according to the Rules and Discipline of War, in Persuance of the Trust reposed in you; and for so doing, this shall be Your Commission, for and during our good Pleasure, to be signified by our Council of Appointment. IN TESTIMONY whereof, We have caused Our Seal for Military Commissions to be hereunto affixed. WITNESS our Trusty and Well-beloved GEORGE CLINTON, Esquire, our Governor of our State of New-York, General and Commander in Chief of all the Militia, and Admiral of the Navy of the same, by and with the Advice and Consent of our said Council of Appointment, at our City of New-York, the twenty-seventh Day of March, in the Year of our LORD, One Thousand Seven Hundred and Eighty-seven, and in the eleventh Year of our Independence.
Passed the Secretary’s Office, 7th April, 1787.
Robt. Harpur, D., Secretary.
Geo. Clinton.
(Governor’s signature in margin, under seal.)