MUHLENBERG, JoHN PETER GABRIEL, 1746-1807; b. Penn.; son of Dr. Henry M. He was educated at the university of Halle, from which he ran away, and passed a year as a private in the dragoons. He studied for the Lutheran ministry under his father, and was ordained in 1772. He was for a time settled over a church in Woodstock, Va. Soon after the beginning of the revolutionary war, he told his connegation in his last sermon that there was "a time for_all things—a time to_preach and a time to fight, and that now was the time. to fight." At the close of the Services; he tore off his gown, showing himself in full uniform, and read from the pulpit his commission • as col. Ile had the drummers strike up for volunteers, and many of his congregation volun teered and joined his regiment, the 8th Virginia, known as the German regi ment, afterwards noted for its courage and good discipline. In 1774 he was a member of the house of burgesses, and served on the committee of safety, and two years later he at in the state convention. He participated in the fighting at Charleston in 1776, and
was made brig.gen. the following year, and placed in command of the Virginia lie took part in the battles of Brandvwine, Germantown, and Monmouth. and in the capture -of Stony Point. He defended Virginia against the expeditions of Leslie and Arnold, and was commander-in-chief there till the arrival of Steuben. Upon the inva aiOn of Virginia by Cornwallis, he was next in command to Lafayette, and at the siege of Yorktown lie was in command of the 1st brigade of light infantry. lie retired at the close of the war with the rank of maj. gen. Soon after he settled in Pennsylvania, to whose executive council he was at once elected, and of which he was elected vice president in 1785. He served in Congress in 1789-91, 1793-95, and 1799-1801. In the hit ter year lie was elected U. S. senator, and in 1803 he was appointed collector of the port of Philadelphia.