Muhlenberg visited England in 1772 and was ordained into the priesthood of the Anglican Church, although he served a Lutheran congregation. Since the Anglican Church was the state church of Virginia, he was required to be ordained in an Anglican church in order to serve a congregation in Virginia. Besides his new congregation, he led the Committee of Safety and Correspondence for Dunmore County, Virginia. He was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1774, and was a delegate to the First Virginia Convention. He owned slaves.[4]
According to a biography written by his great-nephew in the mid-19th century,[6] 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.[6][8]
At the Battle of Yorktown, he commanded the first brigade in Lafayette's Light Division.[13] 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.
After the war, Muhlenberg was elected to the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1784. He was elected Vice-President of the Council, a position comparable to that of Lieutenant Governor, on October 31, 1787. His term as Vice-President ended on a mysterious note. On October 14, 1788, the minutes of the Executive Council report that Muhlenberg had left Philadelphia without tendering his resignation—why his resignation was needed or expected is not noted—so a messenger was sent after him. That night, after the messenger returned with the resignation, the Council met at President Benjamin Franklin's home to choose Muhlenberg's successor, electing David Redick to the position.
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 August 3, 1805, Muhlenberg wrote a letter to the residents of the primarily-German Northampton and Berks counties in a successful attempt to tilt those counties toward incumbent Governor Thomas McKean, who, in the midst of a badly fractured state Republican Party, was running with Federalist support, in his bid for reelection. Muhlenberg noted that although McKean's opponent, Simon Snyder, was of German descent, his election would elevate the Republican Party's radical Democratic faction to power and, with calls for a Constitutional Convention to elevate the power of the state legislature over the governor and especially the judiciary, result in anarchy.[18] McKean's margin of victory, 6,772-3,216, over Snyder in Northampton and Berks secured his narrow, 43,644-38,483, statewide margin of victory over Snyder.[19]
Personal life
On November 6, 1770, he married Anna Barbara "Hannah" Meyer, the daughter of a successful potter.[20] Together they had six children, including:[21]
Francis Swaine Muhlenberg (1795–1831), a U.S. Representative from Ohio who married Mary Barr Denny (1806–1893) in 1831, shortly before his death in December 1831. After his death, Francis' widow married Richard Hubbell Hopkins.[21]
Peter Muhlenberg Memorial in Washington, D.C., on Connecticut Avenue. The inscription reads "John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg 1746 – 1807 Serving His Church, His Country, His State".[22]
Two statues of Peter Muhlenberg are located in front of the Shenandoah County Courthouse in Woodstock, Virginia, and the town's Emmanuel Lutheran congregation preserves communion vessels, a baptismal font and altar cloth that he used.[24]
^Founders Archives, Washington Diary. [1]. [Washington Diary Archives]. [2]. July 30th 1787 and July 31st 1787, as well as personal letter to Elizabeth Powel noting the visit to Jane Moore's House] [3]
^Sanford W. Higginbotham, The Keystone in the Democratic Arch: Pennsylvania Politics, 1800-1816 (Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1952), pp. 32-34.
^Sanford W. Higginbotham, The Keystone in the Democratic Arch: Pennsylvania Politics, 1800-1816 (Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1952), pp. 96-100.
^Sanford W. Higginbotham, The Keystone in the Democratic Arch: Pennsylvania Politics, 1800-1816 (Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, 1952), pp. 99-100.
Hocker, Edward W. The Fighting Parson of the American Revolution: A Biography of General Peter Muhlenberg, Lutheran Clergyman, Military Chieftain, and Political Leader (1936).
Muhlenberg, Henry Augustus. The Life of Major-General Peter Muhlenberg: Of the Revolutionary Army (1849). online
Rightmyer, Thomas Nelson. "The Holy Orders of Peter Muhlenberg." Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church 30.3 (1961): 183-197. online
Pinkowski, Edward. "Washington's Officers Slept Here: Historic Homes of Valley Forge and Its Neighborhood", Sunshine Press, 1953 - 278 pages
