I learned several years ago the MUS found on military tombstones for Civil War soldiers, like the one pictured at right for William Worth Beall , stood for Musician . But there was no such stone for Alva B. Spencer at his burial site in Harmony-Smyrna Cemetery at Dooly County, Georgia. Alva's tombstone, in fact, had no mention of his service at all. At the base, from which the tablet has somehow been separated, is an information card placed by (my guess) a relative of Mr. Spencer's. This adds that Alva was married to Margaret Lucinda Cone, as well as that he was a member of Company C, 3rd Regiment Georgia Volunteer Infantry. Alva, born 6 September 1840 in Greene County, Georgia, was a son of Benjamin E. and Charlotte G. Spencer. Prior to his service in the Confederate States Army, Alva attended Mercer College at Penfield. He was a sophomore in 1856. By the 1860 U.S. Federal census, Alva was a school teacher in Greene County. When I finally look...
Telling the Tales of Tombstones