Peter Muhlenberg Commemoration
Host/POC: Col. James Wood II Chapter VASSAR / Dale Corey.
Details: Peter Muhlenberg was an ordained Anglican pastor serving a Lutheran community in Woodstock, VA. Besides his new congregation, he led the Committee of Safety 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. Toward the end of 1775, Muhlenberg was authorized to raise and command 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 Muhlenberg, a minister, disapproved of him going into the army until the British burned down his 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 everything, 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 300 men from the county to form the nucleus of the 8th Virginia Regiment.

-RBM