The LuLac Edition 5, 619, April 4th, 2026

 

PETER

MUHLENBURG

The Fighting Parson

Peter Muhlenberg was the prime example of a "fighting parson" during the Revolutionary War. The eldest son of the Lutheran patriarch Henry Melchoir Muhlenberg, young Muhlenberg at the conclusion of a sermon in January 1776 to his congregation in Woodstock, Virginia, threw off his clerical robes to reveal the uniform of a Virginia militia officer. Having served with distinction throughout the war, Muhlenberg commanded a brigade that successfully stormed the British lines at Yorktown.

. A member of Pennsylvania's prominent Muhlenberg family political dynasty, he became a respected figure in the newly independent United States as a Lutheran minister and member of the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate.

After the American Revolutionary War broke out in 1775, the Continental Army was formed. Muhlenberg was authorized to raise and command the 8th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army's Virginia Line as its colonel. He was very likely chosen due to his influence in the German-American community. Of the eight colonels in the Virginia Line, Muhlenberg was the youngest at 29 and only Patrick Henry had less military experience.

According to a biography written by his great-nephew in the mid-19th century, on January 21, 1776, in the Lutheran church in Woodstock, Virginia, Muhlenberg took his sermon text from the third chapter Ecclesiastes, which starts with "To every thing there is a season..."; after reading the eighth verse, "a time of war, and a time of peace," he declared, "And this is the time of war," removing his clerical robe to reveal his Colonel's uniform. Outside the church door the drums began to roll as men turned to kiss their wives and then walked down the aisle to enlist, and within half an hour, 162 men were enrolled.[7] The next day he led out 300 men from the county to form the nucleus of the 8th Virginia Regiment. Though it is accepted that Muhlenberg helped form and lead the 8th, historians doubt the account of the sermon, as there are no reports prior to Muhlenberg's great-nephew's biography.

At the Battle of Yorktown, he commanded the first brigade in Lafayette's Light Division. His brigade was part of the Corps of Light Infantry, consisting of the light infantry companies of the line regiments of Massachusetts (ten companies), Connecticut (five companies), New Hampshire (five companies), and Rhode Island and New Jersey (one each). They held the right flank and manned the two trenches built to move American cannons closer to Cornwallis' defenses. The battalion commanded by American Lt. Colonel Alexander Hamilton and French Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Joseph Sourbader de Gimat led the night bayonet attack that stormed Redoubt No. 10 on October 14, 1781.

At the end of the war (1783), he was brevetted to major general and settled in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He retired from the army in 1783 as a brevetted major general.

Muhlenberg was elected to the 1st Congress (1789–1791) and 3rd Congress (1793–1795) as one of the at-large representatives from Pennsylvania. His brother Frederick was the Speaker of the House for that same Congress. He was the first founder of the Democratic-Republican Societies in 1793. Muhlenberg served in Congress as a Republican during the 5th Congress 1799–1801 for the 4th district, previously running for this district in 1796. He was the Anti-Administration nominee in the 1795 United States Senate election in Pennsylvania. Muhlenberg was elected by the legislature to the U.S. Senate on a second ballot in February 1801 over George Logan but resigned on June 30 of that same year.

President Thomas Jefferson appointed him the supervisor of revenue for Pennsylvania in 1801 and customs collector for Philadelphia in 1802. He served in the latter post until his death.

On his 61st birthday, Muhlenberg died in Gray's Ferry, Pennsylvania, on October 1, 1807,  and is buried at the Augustus Lutheran Church in Trappe, Pennsylvania.  (wikipedia, LuLac)