Editing Woodstock, Virginia (section)

=== Revolutionary Era ===
In 1772, Woodstock became the county seat of Dunmore County, which was renamed [[Shenandoah County, Virginia|Shenandoah County]] in 1777 during the [[American Revolutionary War]], shedding the name of the controversial last royal governor of Virginia. Being named the county seat had significant impact for the development of the town. As a county seat, Woodstock necessitated the building of a courthouse and jail. By 1774, the county had erected a permanent courthouse.<ref name="auto5"/>  That original courthouse was replaced in 1795 with a limestone building designed by Thomas Jefferson, using native limestone. It was enlarged in 1871 and 1886. The Shenandoah County Courthouse, located on Main Street, is the oldest courthouse still in use west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=73774|title=Shenandoah County Courthouse Historical Marker|website=www.hmdb.org}}</ref>

====Peter Muhlenberg====
{{Main|Peter Muhlenberg}}
[[Peter Muhlenberg|John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg]], a native of Pennsylvania who was formerly a soldier in the [[British Army during the American Revolutionary War|British Army]] and German dragoons, accepted a call to become pastor to a Woodstock congregation in 1771. After theological training, he served both [[Lutheranism|Lutherans]] and [[Anglicanism|Episcopalians]] for four years in a wide-ranging pastorate in the Shenandoah Valley. During this time, he was drawn to in politics, serving in the House of Burgesses in 1774 and as a delegate to the [[First Virginia Convention]]. Muhlenberg became famous for his impassioned speeches in support of the [[American Revolution|American Revolutionary]] cause, helping to raise a regiment in the Shenandoah Valley among its German and Scots-Irish frontier population. He led the [[8th Virginia Regiment]], as its Colonel in the [[Continental Army]].<ref name="Architect of the Capitol">{{cite web |title=John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg |url=https://www.aoc.gov/art/national-statuary-hall-collection/john-peter-gabriel-muhlenberg |website=Architect of the Capitol |access-date=October 31, 2019 |language=en}} {{PD-notice}}</ref> 

At the conclusion of his fiery farewell sermon in Woodstock on January 21, 1776, Muhlenberg famously threw off his clerical robes to reveal an officer's uniform beneath and proclaimed, according to later reports, "in the language of Holy Writ there is a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away. There is a time to fight, and that time has now come."<ref name="auto4"/> Muhlenberg went on to be promoted to a general in the Continental Army and led units in many battles, from the [[Battle of Brandywine]] to the [[Battle of Yorktown]]. Upon the end of the war in 1783, he did not return to live in Woodstock, but instead returned to his native Pennsylvania as a war hero, served in elected capacities and then was elected to the [[First Continental Congress]] (1788-1789) and several successive Congresses. Elected to the [[United States Senate]] in 1801, he resigned to return to a revenue post in [[Philadelphia]], where he died on October 1, 1807. His statue in the [[United States Capitol|U.S. Capitol]]'s  National Statuary Hall Collection was submitted by Pennsylvania in 1889, and Muhlenberg remains revered in Woodstock for his fiery sermon and the unit he raised and inspired to fight for the nation's independence.<ref name="Architect of the Capitol"/>

The frontier-recruited 8th Virginia Regiment was drawn from Augusta, Berkeley, Culpeper, Dunmore (Shenandoah), Fincastle, and Frederick Counties in the Shenandoah Valley. It was also drawn from the districts of Hampshire County and West Augusta, which are in present-day West Virginia, and elsewhere along the Virginia frontier, which stretched from Kentucky to Fort Pitt (now Pittsburgh, PA). Two of the ten companies were raised from the Dunmore County area of Woodstock.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.8thvirginia.com/1/category/frontier|title=Category: Frontier|website=The 8th Virginia Regiment|access-date=January 8, 2020}}</ref> It was led by Muhlenberg, Colonel of the regiment and Abraham Bowman, Lt. Colonel, both from Woodstock.<ref name="8thvirginia.com">{{Cite web|url=https://www.8thvirginia.com/the-8th-virginia.html|title=The 8th Virginia|website=The 8th Virginia Regiment|access-date=January 8, 2020}}</ref> The 8th Virginia was called "The German Regiment" though it also contained substantial numbers of Scots-Irish. Frequently separated and detached to other units, the men of this tough, frontier-bred regiment served with distinction in many theaters of the war: White Plains, Trenton, Princeton, Short Hills, Cooch's Bridge, Brandywine, Saratoga, Germantown and Charleston. They suffered the hardships at Valley Forge, and were afterwards mustered out of service, with those who reenlisted merging into other Virginia units.<ref name="8thvirginia.com"/>