Peter Muhlenberg John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg ( October 1 , 1746October 1 , 1807 ) was an American clergyman , Continental Army soldier during the American Revolutionary War , and political figure in the newly independent United States . A Lutheran minister , he served in the United States House of Representatives and United States Senate from Pennsylvania . Early life and education . Muhlenberg was born to Pennsylvania German parents Anna and Henry Muhlenberg in Trappe , Pennsylvania . He was sent , together with his brothers , Frederick Augustus and Gotthilf Henry Ernst in 1763 to Halle . They were educated in Latin at the Francke Foundations . He left school in 1767 to start as a sales assistant in Lübeck and returned in the same year to Pennsylvania . There he received a classical education from the Academy of Philadelphia , which is today the University of Pennsylvania . He also served briefly in the German dragoon s , earning the nickname " Teufel Piet " ( Devil Pete ) before returning to Philadelphia . He was ordained in 1768 and headed a Lutheran congregation in Bedminster , New Jersey , before moving to Woodstock , Virginia . In 1770 he married Anna Barbara " Hannah " Meyer , the daughter of a successful potter . Together they had six children . Muhlenberg visited England in 1772 and was ordained into the priesthood of the Anglican Church although he served a Lutheran congregation . Since the Anglican Church was the state church of Virginia , he was required to be ordained in an Anglican church in order to serve a congregation in Virginia . Besides his new congregation , he led the and Correspondence for Dunmore County , Virginia . He was elected to the House of Burgesses in 1774 , and was a delegate to the First Virginia Convention . Military career . Toward the end of 1775 , Muhlenberg was authorized to raise and command as its colonel the 8th Virginia Regiment of the Continental Army . After George Washington personally asked him to accept this task , he agreed . However , his brother Fredrick Augustus Mulenberg , who was also a minister , did not approve of him going into the army until the British burned down his own church in front of him . Then he joined the military himself . According to a biography written by his great nephew in the mid - 19th century . on January 21 , 1776 in the Lutheran church in Woodstock , Virginia , Reverend Muhlenberg took his sermon text from the third chapter Ecclesiastes , which starts with " " To every thing there is a season . . . " " ; after reading the eighth verse , " a time of war , and a time of peace , " he declared , " And this is the time of war , " removing his clerical robe to reveal his Colonel ' s uniform . Outside the church door the drums began to roll as men turned to kiss their wives and then walked down the aisle to enlist , and within half an hour , 162 men were enrolled . The next day he led out 300 men from the county to form the nucleus of the 8th Virginia Regiment . Though it is accepted that Muhlenberg helped form and lead the 8th , historians doubt the account of the sermon , as there are no reports prior to Muhlenberg ' s great - nephew ' s biography . Muhlenberg ' s unit was first posted to the South , to defend the coast of South Carolina and Georgia . In early 1777 , the Eighth Regiment was sent north to join Washington ' s main army . Muhlenberg was made a brigadier general of the Virginia Line and commanded that Brigade in Nathanael Greene ' s division at Valley Forge . Muhlenberg saw service in the Battles of Brandywine , Germantown , and Monmouth . After Monmouth , most of the Virginia Line was sent to the far south , while General Muhlenberg was assigned to head up the defense of Virginia using mainly militia units . At the Battle of Yorktown , he commanded the first brigade in Lafayette ' s Light Division . His brigade was part of the Corps of Light Infantry , consisting of the light infantry companies of the line regiments of Massachusetts ( ten companies ) , Connecticut ( five companies ) , New Hampshire ( five companies ) , and Rhode Island and New Jersey ( one each ) . They held the right flank and manned the two trenches built to move American cannons closer to Cornwallis ' defenses . The battalion commanded by French Lieutenant Colonel Jean - Joseph Sourbader de Gimat led the night bayonet attack that stormed Redoubt No . 10 on October 14 , 1781 . At the end of the war ( 1783 ) , he was brevet ted to major general and settled in Montgomery County , Pennsylvania . Muhlenberg was also an original member of the Pennsylvania Society of the Society of the Cincinnati . Political career . After the war , Muhlenberg was elected to the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 1784 . He was elected Vice - President of the Council , a position comparable to that of Lieutenant Governor , on October 31 , 1787 . His term as Vice - President ended on a mysterious note . On October 14 , 1788 the minutes of the Executive Council report that Muhlenberg had left Philadelphia without tendering his resignation — why his resignation was needed or expected is not noted — so a messenger was sent after him . That night , after the messenger returned with the resignation , the Council met at President Benjamin Franklin ' s home to choose Muhlenberg ' s successor , electing David Redick to the position . Muhlenberg was elected to the 1st Congress ( 1789 – 1791 ) as one of the at - large representatives from Pennsylvania . His brother Frederick was the Speaker of the House for that same Congress . He was the first founder of the Democratic - Republican Societies in 1793 . Muhlenberg served in Congress as a Republican during the 3rd Congress 1793 - 1795 and 5th Congress 1799 - 1801 for the 1st district . Muhlenberg was elected by the legislature to the U . S . Senate on a second ballot in February 1801 over George Logan , but resigned on June 30 of that same year . President Thomas Jefferson appointed him the supervisor of revenue for Pennsylvania in 1801 and customs collector for Philadelphia in 1802 . He served in the latter post until his death . Muhlenberg died in Montgomery County , Pennsylvania on October 1 , 1807 and is buried at the Augustus Lutheran Church in Trappe , Pennsylvania . Another memorial to him is found behind the Philadelphia Museum of Art .