EDWARD BURNHAM ROOT was born in Queensbury, New York on 20 April 1845. He was the second of seven children of David Moseley Root, a carpenter, and Cordelia Brittania Burnham. A number of his ancestors had fought in the American Revolution. His paternal ancestors had been in New England since 1637, and he was descended, through his mother's line, from the pilgrim Myles Standish.
Edward Root was rejected on his first attempt to enlist in the Union army because of his small stature. But he returned to the end of the line and was accepted on the second try. A wealthy relative traveled 200 miles on learning of his enlistment and tried to talk him out of it, even offering to pay $300 for a substitute to take his place. When all persuasion, arguments, threats and so forth had been tried, the irate relative went home, and Ed Root was still in the Army, where he wanted to be. [Apparently, he liked to tell the tale that he enlisted when he was only sixteen years old. Genealogical research shows he was, in fact, eighteen at the time of his enlistment.]
Many were the tales of Army life told by the veteran. Given a mule to ride to replace a worn-out horse, and exhausted from many hours in the saddle, one dark and rainy night Pvt. Root was sitting sideways in the saddle to ease his fatigue. The mule, frightened by some real or imaginary danger, shied violently, and deposited its dozing rider in a deep puddle of muddy water.
In contrast to the comical was the premonition of an Army buddy, who confided in Pvt. Root his feeling that he would not survive the coming battle, and could not rid himself of the feeling, despite efforts to cheer him up. Soon after the opening of the engagement, Pvt. Root witnessed the fulfillment of the prediction when the man was decapitated by a Confederate round shot.
Sleeping on the ground half-covered with water, toasting hard tack on a stick to drive out the weevils before they could be eaten, were only a few of the incidents Pvt. Root recalled.
After the war, Edward Root married Amanda "Minnie" Worden in Coxsackie, New York, on 8 September 1869. They moved to New York City where Edward worked as a tinsmith and where he also served as Vice Commander of Charles A. Summer Post, Grand Army of the Republic. Edward and Minnie had three daughters: Emma, Minnie (who died as an infant) and Anna. They eventually relocated to Bergen County, New Jersey, finally settling in Dumont on Niagra Street.
As a member of the congregation of the Old North Church, he was a devoutly religious man, and was seldom, if ever, known to use profanity, a unique quality in an ex-cavalry trooper. The one exception to this rule was the story he used to tell of being on patrol behind Confederate lines.
With a sergeant and five other troopers, they stopped at a lonely farm house for a meal. While eating, the sound of galloping hooves from the direction of the Confederate lines served notice that their host had managed to notify the enemy, by some means, of the presence of the Union patrol.
The sergeant took one look at the superior Confederate forces that were almost upon them and yelled, "Mount up, boys, and ride like hell!" -- which they did not need further urging to do -- and managed to escape, though, as "Gramps" put it, 'Them pistol balls hummed around us like bumble bees.'
The old soldier marched in Decoration Day parades in Dumont until finally the time came when the effort was too much. When invited to ride in a carriage in the parade, Yankee pride showed itself in his reply, "When a soldier can't march, it's time he stood to home." On Decoration Day thereafter, he put on his Grand Army uniform, but refused to leave the front porch for any reason whatever.
The old veteran's memory remained clear to the last, and he lived long enough to teach his eldest great-grandson to whistle 'Marching Through Georgia.'
The influenza epidemic of 1918 succeeded where Confederate gunfire had failed. Edward B. Root died on 10 November 1918 while staying with relatives in Kingston, New York. He is buried beside his beloved wife in Woodside Cemetery, Dumont, New Jersey.