Little Drummer Boy of Cedar Rapids

Mancil “Manny” Root was very young when he enlisted in the Union Army in 1864. His exact birthyear is difficult to find as it is "estimated" and differs when reported in a variety of sources.

He is reported as being anywhere between 9 and 11 at the time of his enlistment. His father had died at Lookout Mountain, and his family desperately needed the $500 enlistment bounty to keep the mortgaged property and provide medical care for Manny’s sister.

Though the legal draft age was 16, Manny convinced the recruiting captain and his mother that he could serve as a drummer boy in the 36th Wisconsin Infantry. The story reported in the Cedar Rapids Republican in 1926 even includes being personally stopped by President Abraham Lincoln in May 1864 and given a handshake when the president spoke to his regiment.

Manny soon found himself in the thick of war at the second Battle of the Wilderness, where he was wounded in the shoulder. Captured in the Battle of Deep Bottom, he was traded in a prisoner exchange and rejoined his regiment for the final campaigns of the war.

After his military service, Manny ran a livery stable and later became a traveling salesman. He moved to Cedar Rapids, where each Fourth of July he could be heard playing his drum from the rooftop.

In 1929, he died after being struck by a car while crossing the street. His gravestone in Oak Shade Cemetery in Marion simply reads: “Mus. Mancil V. Root 36th Wis. Inf.”

His likeness is included in the Freedom Rock at the Linn County Fairgrounds.

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Tara Templeman is curator at The History Center. Comments: curator@historycenter.org