The Lord's Patriot

A Mighty Fortress

The link between fighters, armies, and religion goes back to ancient times. Biblical armies would sacrifice to their God or gods and seek divine protection and help in battle. The Iliad offers many examples of this from a Greek perspective. Roman legions had their symbols and even kept them in a special tent that acted as a field temple when they camped each night. Different barbarian tribes also called on their gods. This tradition continued into the Christian era, with priests and monks joining knights into battle.

 Roman legionnaires worshiped their standards
 - the eagle, chief among them

By the eighteenth century, the idea of military chaplains started to resemble today's concept. Since the American cause was based on protecting God-given rights of men and the British cause on the God-given authority of the king, religion and military matters became closely linked to politics. The new nation saw the need for “spiritual firepower.” As a result, on July 29, 1775, Congress created the Chaplain Corps at the request of General George Washington. Each regiment in the Continental Army would have one chaplain. They would be paid as captains and would take care of the spiritual, emotional, and even physical health of the soldiers.

Chaplains were established early in
the American Revolution

A Life for God

But our patriotic pastor refused to join the corps. His path was quite different. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg was born in Trappe, Pennsylvania, on October 1, 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.

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 sons, John Peter, Frederick Augustus, and Henry Ernst, to the University of Halle in Germany in 1763. However, John Peter had a restless streak and eventually left Halle to work as a clerk in a counting-house in the Hanseatic city of Lübeck. Not receiving the training he was promised, he departed and briefly joined a German dragoon regiment.

Halle University

John peter returned to America in 1767 to study theology in Philadelphia. In 1768, John Peter Muhlenberg was ordained as a Lutheran minister. Muhlenberg initially served as the 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 time, he met and married Anna Barbara “Hannah” Meyer, the daughter of a successful potter. The marriage proved to be a happy one, and they raised six children together.

Henry Muhlenberg founded Philadelphia's
 Old Zion Lutheran Church

The Patriot Pastor

Muhlenberg moved south to the Shenandoah Valley, where he started his own congregation of German immigrants in Woodstock, a town in Dunmore County, Virginia. Back then, the valley had a mix of German, English, and Scots-Irish settlers. However, the Old Dominion was mainly Anglican territory, so in 1772, Muhlenberg traveled to England, where he was ordained in the Episcopal Church, although he kept his ties to his Lutheran church. 

Muhlenberg was inspired by Patrick Henry's famous speech

Life in Virginia connected John Peter with many influential figures who would lead the colony toward rebellion, with Patrick Henry among the most prominent. Muhlenberg supported the ideals of liberty and often preached about them, which put him at odds with his brother, Frederick Augustus, who was also a pastor at Christ Lutheran Church in New York City. The two exchanged increasingly heated letters as the rebellion drew near.

Local Committees of Correspondence were
crucial in building the rationale for resistance
and the network for insurgency and rebellion

Virginia’s shift from political discontent to insurgency and then open rebellion carried Muhlenberg along with it. As the move toward rebellion sped up, he joined the local Committee of Correspondence. His activism earned him a seat in the Virginia House of Burgesses in 1774. Throughout this period, he kept his church affiliations.

From Cleric to Colonel

His military experience proved valuable, and in early 1776, he was appointed a colonel in the new Continental Army. Before heading 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 took off his clerical robes, revealing his military uniform while encouraging his congregation to support the patriot cause.

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 formed from several counties in western Virginia. In early 1776, Charleston faced the threat of a British invasion, prompting the regiment to march south to support the renowned South Carolina Colonel William Moultrie. The British were driven off during the famous siege that made the palmetto tree well-known.

The Prodigal Brother

Meanwhile, his brother, Frederick Augustus, experienced a kind of epiphany. After 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 sequence of events led Frederick to the cause of liberty, and he was elected as a delegate to the Continental Congress in 1779. He would go on to become prominent in Pennsylvania and national politics, serving as the first Speaker of the House under the new Constitution.

The once Tory Frederick Augustus 
became an unlikely first Speaker of the House

The Sound of the Drum

By 1777, Colonel Muhlenberg had returned north with his regiment, which was now part of Washington’s main Continental Army at its Morristown cantonment. Known for his steady hand, attention to detail, and care for the troops, Muhlenberg was promoted to Brigadier General and assigned to Nathanael Greene’s division, where he fought at Brandywine and Germantown. At Germantown, he led the column that pushed deep into the British right flank and came close to securing an unlikely victory in the dark and fog.

Muhlenberg's brigade penetrated deep into the
British flank at Germantown

When the Continental Army emerged from the tough winter at Valley Forge, it was retrained and re-outfitted—an army capable of fighting the British on even terms. Muhlenberg led troops in the subsequent Monmouth campaign and was later assigned to Major General Anthony Wayne’s division in New Jersey. He also participated during the famous storming of the British fortifications at Stony Point, New York, in the summer of 1779.

Stony Point

Defense of the Old Dominion

By 1780, tensions were rising again in the south, leading to the dispatch of Brigadier General Muhlenberg to Virginia, where he took command of all militia forces in the state. Sadly, the militia was heavily weakened, and he had to raise new troops, secure equipment, and organize them—all while facing threats from British naval and land forces. He effectively used his militia to delay and contain the British around Portsmouth. Under the leadership of General Friedrich von Steuben, Muhlenberg played a vital role in preventing the British from splitting Virginia.

British General Benedict Arnold
terrorized Virginia

In 1781, the notorious American traitor-turned-British General Benedict Arnold led a brutal raid along the James River, threatening Richmond and Petersburg while burning everything in his path. Muhlenberg commanded the militia brigade that successfully slowed down British forces under General William Phillips near Petersburg, Virginia, in April 1781. 

Muhlenberg's brigade supported
Lafayette in his defense of Virginia

When Washington sent the Marquis de Lafayette with a division, he was placed in charge of a brigade—this time, Continental Line troops. Lafayette’s division played a crucial role in covering Cornwallis’s advance from North Carolina and pushing the desperate British column down the Virginia peninsula to the “safety” of Yorktown. During the Yorktown siege in October that year, his brigade supported Lieutenant-Colonel Alexander Hamilton’s famous bayonet attack on Redoubt Number 10, which helped seal Cornwallis’s fate.

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.

Brevet Major General John Peter Muhlenberg

Like many of our first patriots, Muhlenberg’s wartime experience was just the beginning of his service to the new nation. Popular among the German residents in and around Philadelphia, Muhlenberg pursued a long and notable political career. 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 was appointed a U.S. senator in 1801 (no elections were held at that time). He resigned his Senate seat when President Thomas Jefferson appointed him customs inspector for Philadelphia.

A Steady Hand

The fight for independence was won by the soldiers. But those soldiers needed dependable leaders—militarily, politically, and spiritually. Leaders they could trust. Luckily, the nation had enough of those leaders to stay strong during an eight-year struggle. John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg was one of those vital leaders. Neither a “bad-ass” nor flashy, his steady hand helped build the moral, ideological, military, and political foundations of the country. He died at Grey’s Ferry outside Philadelphia on October 1, 1807. Though little known today, he was arguably the most prominent German-American of his time.

Muhlenberg Statue in
the Capitol

Muhlenberg is commemorated by numerous statues and monuments. Perhaps the most well-known one is inside 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.”

Monument in Philadelphia