A Mighty Fortress
The connection between the fighting man and armies with
religion goes back to the earliest times. Biblical armies sacrificed to their
God/gods and invoked divine protection and intervention to help in battle. The
Iliad provides many examples of this from a Greek perspective. Roman legions
had their totems and even placed them in a special tent that served as a field
temple when making camp each night. The various barbarian tribes invoked their
gods as well. The tradition carried into the Christian era. Priests and monks
accompanied the knights into battle.
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| Roman legionnaires worshiped their standards - the eagle chief among them |
By the eighteenth century, the idea of military chaplains
began to approximate modern usage. And since the American cause was predicated
on preserving God-given rights of men and the British cause the God-given
authority of the king, things religious and military mixed with politics. The
new nation recognized the need for “spiritual firepower.” So on 29 July 1775,
Congress established the Chaplain Corps at the request of General George
Washington. There would be one chaplain for each regiment in the Continental
Army. Receiving a captain’s pay, they would attend to the spiritual, emotional,
and even physical well-being of the troops.
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| Chaplains were established early in the American Revolution |
A Life for God
But our patriot pastor would not be one to join the
corps. His road was quite different. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg was born in
Trappe, Pennsylvania on 1 October 1764, the son of German immigrants Heinrich (Henry ) Melchior Muehlenberg (Muhlenberg) and Anna Maria Weiser. The elder Muhlenberg, a Lutheran minister,
became quite prominent in protestant circles and was known as "the
Patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America" for his role in organizing
the Lutheran churches.
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| Henry Muhlenberg was the patriarch of the Lutheran Church in America |
Valuing education, his father sent him to the Academy of
Philadelphia. Muhlenberg then sent three of his boys, John Peter, Frederick
Augustus, and Henry Ernst, to the University of Halle in Germany in 1763. But
John Peter had a restless streak and eventually left Halle to work as a clerk in
a counting-house in the Hanseatic city of Lubeck. Not receiving the training
promised, he left and joined a German dragoon regiment for a short time.
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| Halle University |
John Peter returned to America in 1767 to study Theology
in Philadelphia. In 1768 John Peter Muhlenberg was ordained a Lutheran
minister. Muhlenberg first served as assistant rector for the congregations of
Zion and St. Paul’s Churches in New Jersey. In 1769, he became the pastor at
Bedminster. During this period, he met and married Anna Barbara “Hannah” Meyer,
the daughter a successful potter. The marriage would prove to be a happy one
for they would raise six children together.
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| Henry Muhlenberg founded Philadelphia's Old Zion Lutheran Church |
The Patriot Pastor
Muhlenberg migrated south to the Shenandoah Valley where
he opened up his own congregation of German immigrants in the town of Woodstock
in Dunmore County, Virginia. At that time, the valley included a mix of German,
English and Scots-Irish settlers. But the Old Dominion was Anglican country, so
in 1772 Muhlenberg sailed to England where he was ordained in the Episcopal
Church, although he maintained his connection to his Lutheran church.
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| Muhlenberg was inspired by Patrick Henry's famous speech |
Life in Virginia
put John Peter in contact with many of the movers and shakers who would propel
the colony towards rebellion, chief of whom was Patrick Henry. Muhlenberg
supported the ideals of liberty and often preached about them. This put him at
odds with his brother, Fredrick Augustus, himself a pastor of Christ Lutheran
Church in New York City. The two maintained an increasingly heated
correspondence during the run-up to the rebellion.
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| Local Committees of Correspondence were crucial in building the rationale for resistance and the network for insurgency and rebellion |
Virginia’s march from political discontent to insurgency
and then open rebellion swept Muhlenberg along with it. As the path to
rebellion quickened its pace, he became a member of the local Committee of
Correspondence. His activism got him a seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses
in 1774. All the while he maintained his church affiliations.
From Cleric to Colonel
His military experience came in handy and in early 1776
he was appointed a colonel in the new Continental Army. Prior to marching off
to war, Muhlenberg gave a farewell sermon based on Ecclesiastes 3:1. His final
words reportedly were, “There is a time for all things, a time to preach and a
time to pray, but those times have passed away. There is a time to fight, and
that time has now come.” At that, he tossed off his clerical robes, revealing
his military uniform and encouraging his congregation to support the patriot
cause.
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| From the Holy Spirit to the Spirit of 76 |
Colonel Muhlenberg’s first task was to recruit soldiers
for the 8th Virginia Continental Line. The unit was raised from several
counties in western Virginia. In early 1776, Charleston was threatened by a
British invasion, so the regiment marched south to support the famed South
Carolina Colonel William Moultrie. The British were driven off in the famed
siege that made the palmetto tree famous.
The Prodigal Brother
Meanwhile, his brother Frederick Augustus had an epiphany
of sorts. Following the Battle of Brooklyn Heights, the British bombarded and
invaded New York City. Frederick Muhlenberg's church was burned and his family
had to flee the city. This turn of events brought Frederick to the cause of
liberty and he was elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1779.
He would go onto prominence in Pennsylvania and national politics, serving as the first Speaker of the House under the new constitution.
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| The once Tory Frederick Augustus would become an unlikely first Speaker of the House |
The Sound of the Drum
By 1777, Colonel Muhlenberg was back north with his
regiment, which was now part of Washington’s main Continental Army at its
Morristown cantonment. Noted for his steady hand, attention to detail, and the
troops, Muhlenberg was promoted to Brigadier General and assigned to Nathanael
Green’s division, where he fought at Brandywine and Germantown. At Germantown, he led the column that penetrated deep into the British right flank and came
close to securing an improbable victory in the dark and fog.
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| Muhlenberg's brigade penetrated deep into the British flank at Germantown |
When the Continental Army emerged from the harsh winter
at Valley Forge it was retrained and re-outfitted – an army that could now take
on the British on equal terms. Muhlenberg led forces in the ensuing Monmouth
campaign and was then attached to Major General Anthony Wayne’s division in New
Jersey and later during the famed storming of the British fortifications at Stony
Point, New York in the summer of 1779.
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| Stony Point |
Defense of the Old Dominion
By 1780, things were heating up down south again, so Brigadier
General Muhlenberg was dispatched to Virginia where he was in command of all
militia forces in the state. Unfortunately, the militia was greatly weakened
and he had to raise new troops, find equipment and organize them, all in the
face of British naval and land threats. He managed to skillfully employ his
militia to delay and contain the British around Portsmouth. Placed under
General Friedrich von Steuben’s command, Muhlenberg would play a key role in
foiling the British attempt to split Virginia at the seams.
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| British General Benedict Arnold terrorized Virginia |
In 1781, the infamous American traitor, British general
Benedict Arnold was heading up a ruthless raid along the James River,
threatening Richmond and Petersburg and torching everything in sight.
Muhlenberg commanded the brigade of militia that successfully delayed British
forces under General William Phillips near Petersburg, Virginia in April 1781.
 Muhlenberg's brigade supported Lafayette in his defense of Virginia |
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| Muhlenberg supported the legendary assault on Redoubt Number 10 |
From Parson to Politico
Like so many of his peers, Muhlenberg resigned from the
Continental Army in September 1783 as the terms of the Treaty of Paris were
bringing the eight-year struggle to a close. By then he had attained the rank
of (brevet) major general, as high as anyone could rise, being that George
Washington was the only lieutenant general in the Continental Army.
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| Brevet Major General John Peter Muhlenberg |
As with so many of our first patriots, Muhlenberg’s war
experience was just the beginning of his service to the new nation. Popular
with the German residents in and around Philadelphia, Muhlenberg began a career
in politics both long and distinguished. He became a member of the state
supreme executive council, serving as vice president under Benjamin Franklin.
He also served three terms in Congress and in 1801 was appointed (no elections
then) a US senator. He gave up his senate seat when President Thomas Jefferson
named him customs inspector for Philadelphia.
A Steady Hand
The struggle for independence was won on the backs of the
soldiers. But those soldiers needed leaders who were steady - militarily,
politically, and spiritually. Leaders
they could trust. It is the nation’s
good fortune to have enough of those leaders to stay the course of an eight-year
struggle. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg
was one of those essential leaders. Neither a “bad-ass” nor flashy, his steady
hand helped form the moral, ideological, military, and political grounding of
the nation. He died at Grey’s Ferry
outside Philadelphia on 1 October 1807. He is a little-known first patriot today
but was arguably the most prominent German-American of the era.
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| Muhlenberg Statue in the Capitol |
Muhlenberg is memorialized by many statues and monuments.
Perhaps the most famous is in the capitol itself. His tombstone reads, “He was
Brave in the field, Faithful in the Cabinet, Honorable in all his transactions,
a Sincere Friend and an Honest Man.”
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| Monument in Philadelphia |
