Tombstone Tuesday- Cyrus Maynard Black

Well I am getting ready for the Military Class that I am going to be teaching in a couple weeks and I love to use my family as examples in my classes.  This worked out perfectly for Tombstone Tuesday because of my Civil War ancestory, Cyrus Maynard Black.  A question that is often asked is "How do I know if my ancestor was in the Civil War?"  First you must determine that the person was of the approximate right age to be in War.  Then usually a tombstone is a good tip off.  In this case, this was my first indication that he was in the Civil War.  This is a typical Civil War tombstone and it doesn't give much information.  What it does give me though is that he was in company c, 11th Indiana Cavalry.  Generally when there is a tombstone like this, it had to applied for through the government.  I found the card used for the application using ancestry.com.  The only new information I got from the card was that he was a Private and died the 25th of January 1892.  Using all of this information however, I am able to obtain the service and pension records (at a hefty price), regimental histories and found out that he was a bugler in the Civil War.  He turned out to be a perfect example for my class!! Thanks third great grandpa. :-)