19 Facts About Peter Muhlenberg

John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg was an American clergyman and Continental Army soldier during the American Revolutionary War.

Peter Muhlenberg left school in 1767 to start as a sales assistant in Lubeck, but returned that same year to Pennsylvania.

Peter Muhlenberg served briefly in the British 60th Regiment of Foot, and served briefly in the German dragoons, earning the nickname "Teufel Piet" before returning to Philadelphia in 1767, where he was given a classical education from the Academy of Philadelphia.

Peter Muhlenberg was ordained in 1768 and headed a Lutheran congregation in Bedminster, New Jersey, before moving to Woodstock, Virginia.

Peter Muhlenberg visited England in 1772 and was ordained into the priesthood of the Anglican Church, although he served a Lutheran congregation.

Peter Muhlenberg was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1774, and was a delegate to the First Virginia Convention.

Toward the end of 1775, Peter Muhlenberg was authorized to raise and command as its colonel the 8th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army.

Peter Muhlenberg's unit was first posted to the South, to defend the coast of South Carolina and Georgia.

Peter Muhlenberg was made a brigadier general of the Virginia Line and commanded that Brigade in Nathanael Greene's division at Valley Forge.

Peter Muhlenberg saw service in the Battles of Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth.

Peter Muhlenberg's brigade was part of the Corps of Light Infantry, consisting of the light infantry companies of the line regiments of Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island and New Jersey.

Peter Muhlenberg was an original member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Cincinnati.

That night, after the messenger returned with the resignation, the Council met at President Benjamin Franklin's home to choose Peter Muhlenberg's successor, electing David Redick to the position.

Peter Muhlenberg was elected to the 1st Congress as one of the at-large representatives from Pennsylvania.

Peter Muhlenberg was the first founder of the Democratic-Republican Societies in 1793.

Peter Muhlenberg was elected by the legislature to the US Senate on a second ballot in February 1801 over George Logan, but resigned on June 30 of that same year.

Peter Muhlenberg served in the latter post until his death.

Peter 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.

On his 61st birthday, Peter Muhlenberg died in Gray's Ferry, Pennsylvania, on October 1,1807 and is buried at the Augustus Lutheran Church in Trappe, Pennsylvania.