Drummer Boy: Erhardt Lentz

Newspaper article about Erhardt Lentz (b. 1/2/1797) service for Germany against Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo.

Article reads:
Drummer for Napoleon, buried in Iowa.

Leon, IA - There is an old soldier buried in Lentz cemetery near Woodland, 10 miles east of here, who is entitled to have the French national colors, the Tricolor, fly over his grave on Memorial Day.

The headstone reads: "Erhard Lentz, died March 5th, 1873, aged 76 years, 2 months, and 3 days. He was a drummer boy at Waterloo.

Mrs. Walter Campbell of Leon, a great-grandaughter of Lentz, says family records show Lentz was a drummer boy for Napoleon when he was defeated at Waterloo. Lentz later became a German weaver and still later migrated to the United States, settling in the Leon area, where he became a farmer. Another granddaughter, Mrs. Truelia J. Morris, 80, a sister of Mrs. Campbell, lives in Lamar, Colorado.