Peter Muhlenberg
Peter Muhlenberg | |
|---|---|
 | |
| United States Senator fromPennsylvania | |
| In office March 4, 1801 – June 30, 1801 | |
| Preceded by | William Bingham |
| Succeeded by | George Logan |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromPennsylvania's4thdistrict | |
| In office March 4, 1799 – March 4, 1801 | |
| Preceded by | John Chapman |
| Succeeded by | Isaac Van Horne |
| Member of theU.S. House of Representatives fromPennsylvania'sat-largedistrict | |
| In office March 4, 1793 – March 4, 1795 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| In office March 4, 1789 – March 4, 1791 | |
| Preceded by | Constituency established |
| Succeeded by | Constituency abolished |
| 8thVice-President of Pennsylvania | |
| In office October 31, 1787 – October 14, 1788 | |
| President | Benjamin Franklin |
| Preceded by | Charles Biddle |
| Succeeded by | David Redick |
| Personal details | |
| Born | John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg October 1, 1746 Trappe,Province of Pennsylvania,British America |
| Died | October 1, 1807(aged 61) Grays Ferry,Philadelphia,Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic-Republican |
| Relations | Muhlenberg family Conrad Weiser(maternal grandfather) |
| Profession | Minister,Politician, Soldier |
| Signature |  |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch/service |  Continental Army |
| Years of service | 1776–1783 |
| Rank |  Major General |
| Commands | 8th Virginia Regiment |
| Battles/wars | American Revolutionary War •Battle of Brandywine •Battle of Germantown •Battle of Monmouth •Siege of Yorktown |
John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg(October 1, 1746 – October 1, 1807) was an American clergyman and military officer who served during theAmerican Revolutionary War.A member ofPennsylvania's prominentMuhlenberg familypolitical dynasty, he became a respected figure in the newly independent United States as aLutheranminister and member of theUnited States House of RepresentativesandUnited States Senate.[1]
Early life and education[edit]
Muhlenberg was born October 1, 1746, inTrappein theProvince of Pennsylvaniato Anna Maria Weiser, the daughter ofPennsylvania Dutchpioneer and diplomatConrad Weiser,andHenry MuhlenbergaGermanLutheranpastor.
In 1763, along with his brothers,Frederick AugustusandGotthilf Henry Ernst,he was sent toHalle,where they were educated inLatinat theFrancke Foundations.[2]In 1767, he left school to begin his career as a sales assistant inLübeck,but returned the same year to Pennsylvania.
Career[edit]
He briefly served in theBritish Army's60th Regiment of Foot,[3]and also served for a short while in the Germandragoons,earning thenickname"Teufel Piet" (Devil Pete) before returning to Philadelphia in 1767, where he was given a classical education from theAcademy of Philadelphia(the modernUniversity of Pennsylvania). He was ordained in 1768 and headed a Lutheran congregation inBedminster, New Jersey,before moving toWoodstock, Virginia.
Muhlenberg visited England in 1772 and was ordained into the priesthood of theAnglican 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 theCommittee of SafetyandCorrespondenceforDunmore County, Virginia.He was elected to theHouse of Burgessesin 1774, and was a delegate to theFirst Virginia Convention.He owned slaves.[4]
Military career[edit]
After theAmerican Revolutionary Warbroke out in 1775, theContinental Armywas formed. Muhlenberg was authorized to raise and command the8th Virginia Regimentof theContinental Army'sVirginia Lineas itscolonel.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 onlyPatrick Henryhad less military experience.[5]
According to a biography written by his great-nephew in the mid-19th century,[6]on January 21, 1776, in the Lutheran church inWoodstock, Virginia,Muhlenberg took his sermon text from the third chapterEcclesiastes,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 the8th 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]
Muhlenberg's unit was first posted to theSouth,to defend the coast ofSouth CarolinaandGeorgia.In early 1777, the Eighth Regiment was sent north to join Washington's main army. Muhlenberg was made abrigadier generalof theVirginia Lineand commanded thatBrigadeinNathanael Greene's division atValley Forge.Muhlenberg's Headquarters',[9]assigned by Washington during the 1777-1778 Winter Encampment[10]at Valley Forge, is now known as the Moore-Irwin House[11]inKing of Prussia, PA,and was also the estate Washington wrote in his diary of[12]visiting with otherFounding FathersGouverneur MorrisandRobert Morrisduring a rare break in the 1787Constitutional ConventioninPhiladelphia.Muhlenberg saw service in the Battles ofBrandywine,Germantown,andMonmouth.After Monmouth, most of the Virginia Line was sent to the far south, while General Muhlenberg was assigned to head up the defense of Virginia using mainlymilitiaunits.
At theBattle of Yorktown,he commanded the first brigade inLafayette'sLight Division.[13]His brigade was part of the Corps of Light Infantry, consisting of the light infantry companies of the line regiments ofMassachusetts(ten companies),Connecticut(five companies),New Hampshire(five companies), andRhode IslandandNew 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. ColonelAlexander Hamiltonand French Lieutenant ColonelJean-Joseph Sourbader de Gimatled the night bayonet attack that stormed Redoubt No. 10 on October 14, 1781.
At the end of the war (1783), he wasbrevettedtomajor generaland settled inMontgomery County, Pennsylvania.
Muhlenberg was also an original member of the PennsylvaniaSociety of the Cincinnati.[14]
Political career[edit]
After the war, Muhlenberg was elected to theSupreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvaniain 1784. He was electedVice-President of the Council,a position comparable to that ofLieutenant 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 PresidentBenjamin Franklin's home to choose Muhlenberg's successor, electingDavid Redickto the position.
Muhlenberg was elected to the1st Congress(1789–1791) as one of theat-largerepresentatives from Pennsylvania. His brotherFrederickwas theSpeaker of the Housefor that same Congress. He was the first founder of theDemocratic-Republican Societiesin 1793. Muhlenberg served in Congress as a Republican during the3rd Congress1793–1795 and5th Congress1799–1801 for the 1st district. Muhlenberg was elected by the legislature to the U.S. Senate on a second ballot in February 1801 overGeorge Logan,but resigned on June 30 of that same year.[15]
PresidentThomas Jeffersonappointed him thesupervisor of revenuefor 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 GovernorThomas 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.[16]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.[17]
Personal life[edit]
On November 6, 1770, he married Anna Barbara "Hannah" Meyer, the daughter of a successful potter.[18]Together they had six children, including:[19]
- 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.[19]
On his 61st birthday, Muhlenberg died inGray's Ferry, Pennsylvania,on October 1, 1807, and is buried at theAugustus Lutheran Churchin Trappe, Pennsylvania.
Legacy[edit]
- Muhlenberg is the namesake ofMuhlenberg County, Kentucky.[21]
- A memorialto Peter Muhlenberg is located inWashington, D.C.,on Connecticut Avenue (see image).
- Another memorial to him stands behind thePhiladelphia Museum of Art.
- Two statues of Peter Muhlenberg are located in front of theShenandoah County CourthouseinWoodstock, Virginia,and the town's Emmanuel Lutheran congregation preserves communion vessels, a baptismal font and altar cloth that he used.[22]
- Muhlenberg CollegeinAllentown, Pennsylvania,displays a statue of John P. G. Muhlenberg in front of the Haas College Center, 2400 Chew Street.
References[edit]
- ^Kennedy, Will P. "Capital Sidelights."Washington, D.C.:The Sunday Star,October 11, 1942, p. 27 (subscription required).
- ^Archiv der Franckeschen Stiftungen, AF St/S B I 94 I, 575–577
- ^Horn, Joshua (November 9, 2015)."Peter Muhlenberg: The Pastor Turned Soldier".Journal of the American Revolution.RetrievedNovember 29,2015.
- ^"Congress slaveowners",The Washington Post,January 19, 2022,retrievedJuly 11,2022
- ^https://allthingsliberty /2015/11/peter-muhlenberg-the-pastor-turned-soldier/
- ^ab"History Detectives Season 5, Episode 5 – Transcript"(PDF).Oregon Public Broadcasting. 2007.RetrievedAugust 20,2008.
- ^"Archived copy".Archived fromthe originalon February 22, 2011.RetrievedAugust 9,2010.
{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^"Muhlenberg a recruiter for the Revolutionary War?".The Lutheran. 2007. Archived fromthe originalon January 4, 2014.
- ^"General Muhlenberg's Headquarters".King of Prussia Historical Society, The Moore-Irwin House.RetrievedJune 11,2024.
- ^>"National Park Service, Valley Forge National Historical Park, A Winter Encampment".National Park Service, Valley Forge National Historical Park, What Happened at Valley Forge, A Winter Encampment.RetrievedJune 11,2024.
- ^"Moore Irwin-House Silas T. Burgess Arboretum".Upper Merion Township.RetrievedJune 13,2024.
- ^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]
- ^Hamner, Christopher.Black-Robed Regiment.Teachinghistory.org.Accessed June 2, 2011.
- ^"Officers Represented in the Society of the Cincinnati".The American Revolution Institute of the Society of the Cincinnati.RetrievedMarch 19,2021.
- ^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.
- ^Association, John Conrad Weiser Family (1960).The Weiser family: a genealogy of the family of John Conrad Weiser, the elder (d. 1746); prepared on the two hundred fiftieth anniversary of his arrival in America, 1710-1760.John Conrad Weiser Family Assoc. p. 168.RetrievedDecember 18,2019.
- ^abWayland, John Walter (1980).A History of Shenandoah County, Virginia.Genealogical Publishing Com. p. 623.ISBN978-0-8063-8011-7.RetrievedDecember 18,2019.
- ^"John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg".aoc.gov.Architect of the Capitol.RetrievedDecember 18,2019.
- ^The Register of the Kentucky State Historical Society, Volume 1.Kentucky State Historical Society. 1903. p.36.
- ^Bicentennial:Dunmore 1772-1778; Shenandoah 1778-1972 *Shenandoah County Bicentennial Committee 1972) p. 54
Further reading[edit]
- Cecere, Michael."The Fighting Parson's Farewell Sermon."Journal of the American Revolution,April 15, 2020.
- 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 Church30.3 (1961): 183-197.online
- Pinkowski, Edward. "Washington's Officers Slept Here: Historic Homes of Valley Forge and Its Neighborhood", Sunshine Press, 1953 - 278 pages
External links[edit]
- Congressional Biography
- National Statuary Hall Collection Biography
- Biography and statue at the University of Pennsylvania
- History Detectives: Muhlenberg Robe
- .Encyclopædia Britannica(11th ed.). 1911.
- .New International Encyclopedia.1905.
- .Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography.1900.
- John Peter Gabriel MuhlenbergatFind a Grave
- The 8th Virginia Regiment(history site)
- Society of the Cincinnati
- https:// americanrevolutioninstitute.org/
- The House on Moore Road, Washington Slept Here
| Class 1 |  | |
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| Class 3 | ||
| Notes | †Never officially seated | |
| Vice-presidents (1777–1790) |  | |
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| Lieutenant governors (since 1875) | ||
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
- 1746 births
- 1807 deaths
- People from Trappe, Pennsylvania
- People from colonial Pennsylvania
- Muhlenberg family
- Pennsylvania Dutch people
- Lutherans from Pennsylvania
- Anti-Administration Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania
- Democratic-Republican Party members of the United States House of Representatives from Pennsylvania
- Democratic-Republican Party United States senators from Pennsylvania
- University of Pennsylvania alumni
- Clergy in the American Revolution
- Continental Army generals
- Continental Army officers from Virginia
- People of Pennsylvania in the American Revolution
- Burials in Pennsylvania
- United States senators who owned slaves