Muhlenberg, << MYOO luhn burg, >> John Peter Gabriel (1746-1807), a Lutheran minister, became a colonial military leader during the Revolutionary War in America (1775-1783). He later was elected to the United States Congress.
Muhlenberg served at churches in New Jersey from 1760 to 1771 and then became a minister in Woodstock, Va. There, after a Sunday service in 1776, Muhlenberg removed his robe to reveal a military uniform. He enrolled men in his parish into a regiment and became its colonel. He commanded troops at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown in Pennsylvania; Monmouth, New Jersey; and Yorktown, Virginia; and rose to the rank of major general. Pennsylvania elected him to three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives–1789 to 1791, 1793 to 1795, and 1799 to 1801.
Muhlenberg was born on Oct. 1, 1746, in Trappe, Pennsylvania. A statue of him represents Pennsylvania in the U.S. Capitol. His father, Henry M. Muhlenberg, helped found the Lutheran Church in America. John Muhlenberg died on Oct. 1, 1807.
