Muhlenberg, Johann Gabriel Peter.
Muhlenberg, Johann Gabriel Peter.—American general in the Revolutionary war. Born in Montgomery Co., Pa., October 1, 1746, son of Heinrich M. Muhlenberg. With his two younger brothers, Frederick August and Heinrich Ernst, he went in 1763 to Halle, Germany, to study for the ministry, returning to Philadelphia in 1766. At the outbreak of the Revolution he was pastor of the German Lutheran Community of Woodstock, Virginia. Participated actively in the measures preceding armed resistance to the unjust measures of Parliament, and on the recommendation of Washington and Patrick Henry was appointed Colonel of the Eighth (or German) regiment of Virginia. He preached to his congregation for the last time in January, 1776, on the duty of the citizen to his country, concluding with the memorable words: “There is a time for everything, for prayer, for preaching and also for fighting. The time for fighting has arrived.” He had scarcely concluded the benediction when he cast off his clerical gown and stood revealed in full regimentals. An indescribable scene of patriotic enthusiasm followed, and many of his parishioners crowded around him and enlisted for service. On February 21, 1777, he was promoted to brigadier general by order of Congress. After the defeat of the American army at Brandywine, his brigade covered the retreat with invincible bravery, and in the battle of Germantown he performed his duty with distinction, causing the enemy’s right wing to give way but unable to prevent the loss of the battle. In the storming of the redoubts at Yorktown he played a conspicuous part, commanding the light infantry which capturedthe left bulwarks of the British fortifications and decided the battle. After the war he was vice-president of the high executive Council of Pennsylvania and was elected to a seat in the first, second and sixth Congress. He was elected eight times to the position of president of the German Society of Pennsylvania. He is represented in Statuary Hall in the Capitol at Washington by a monument of marble presented by the State of Pennsylvania.
The following interesting story of the career of General Muhlenberg, by Mrs. Elizabeth Gadsby, Historian of the Daughters of the American Revolution, is taken from the Washington “Post” of July 5, 1903:
The father, John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg, located at Trappe, Pa., and was the founder of the Lutheran Church in America.
During the Revolution the armies passed and repassed their home so frequently they never knew when the table was set whether the food prepared for themselves would be eaten by the English or American soldiers. They were frequently in great danger from the skirmishing which constantly took place all around them, and often suffered the pangs of hunger, every field of grain and forage being devastated by the armies.
Peter was sent to the University of Halle, in Prussia, where, tiring of his studies and the strict confinement, he ran away and joined the Prussian dragoons, which gave him his first military ardor and ambition. After several years of hardship he left the army and studied for the ministry. He returned to America, going back to Europe to be ordained in England in 1771, and was then called to the pastorate at Woodstock, Va., to preach to the Germans who had settled on the frontier of that State.
In March, 1773, the Virginia Assembly recommended a committee of correspondence, and the House of Burgesses passed a resolution making the first day of June a day of fasting and prayer in sympathy with Boston, whose port Parliament had ordered closed. Governor Dunmore declared this resolution treason, and indignantly dissolved the House of Burgesses. Great excitement prevailed. The governor, finding the people of his colony in great sympathy with the cause of freedom, aroused himself for immediate action, and endeavored to bring the Indians in hostile array against the colonists, also causing a rumor to be spread that the slaves would rise in insurrection against the colonists.
In April he removed the powder from the old magazine at the Capitol. His ships were laden and ready for flight or defense. The powder was put on board the governor’s ship.
The people demanded the return of the powder to Williamsburg. Dunmore became alarmed when Patrick Henry marched at the head of his volunteers toward the Capitol to capture the powder. Arrivingat Great Bridge, the first conflict took place between the English and the colonists.
Dunmore kept the powder, but ordered the Receiver General to pay its full value, which sum Patrick Henry turned into the public treasury.