Gray HAGGARD
born 24 Feb 1844, Rockwood, Roane Co, TN
died 27 Jul 1864, Rock Island Union Prison, Rock Island, Rock Island Co, IL

He was a son of Robert Gilliland HAGGARD and Mary “Polly” McPHERSON of Roane County, Tennessee. On 30 Oct 1850, a six year-old Gray is recorded with his parents in the census for the 20th Subdivision of Roane County, TN. At sixteen, he is still at home with his family in Cross Keys, Roane County for the 1860 census. Mary HAGGARD ELLIS KEYLON was his sister, and she is five that year.

Gray was a private in Co H of the 3d Confederate Cavalry. His gravesite number at Rock Island is 1350. Here is how his information appears on the VA’s Nationwide Gravesite Locator:

HAGGARD, GRAY
PVT US ARMY
DATE OF DEATH: 07/27/1864
BURIED AT: SECTION A SITE 1350
ROCK ISLAND CONFEDERATE CEMETERY
ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, P.O. BOX 737 MOLINE , IL 61266-0737
(309) 782-2094

The National Cemetery provides some historical background about the cemetery:

Rock Island National Cemetery was established within the confines of the U.S. Arsenal located on Rock Island in the Mississippi River near the cities of Davenport, Iowa, and Moline, Ill. In 1863 an area was set aside to bury Union soldiers who died while serving as guards at the large Confederate prison camp established on Rock Island by the U.S. government….. Between 1863 and 1865, the federal government established a second cemetery of a little more than two acres for the burial of Confederate prisoners of war. Approximately 1,950 soldiers died at the Rock Island Confederate Prison, founded there in 1863. The first POWs, captured during the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge in Tennessee in November 1863, arrived in December. Throughout the war, Confederates were brought to Rock Island from battle areas throughout the South; eventually, more than 12,000 POWs were confined there. Prisoners died from a variety of causes, including exposure to the cold, harsh winters, malnutrition and diseases such as smallpox.

Sources: Federal Census (Roane Co, TN); Civil War Soldiers & Sailors System; National Cemetery Administration; US Veteran’s Administration (Rock Island National Cemetery)