States Rights Gist
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1831-1864
States Rights Gist was born September 3, 1831 in Union District of
South Carolina. He died November 30, 1864 in Franklin, Tennessee from
wounds received during the Battle of Franklin. Gist studied at
Harvard Law School and was a Lawyer and a Brigadier General in the
South Carolina Militia. He was buried in the Trinity Episcopal
Cathedral churchyard in Downtown Columbia.
"Brigadier-General States R. Gist was a descendant of that gallant
Marylander, Gen. Mordecai Gist, who distinguished himself at the
battle of Camden in 1780, and at the Combahee in 1782, and
subsequently resided at Charleston, at his death leaving two sons who
bore the names of Independent and States. At the organization of the
army of South Carolina early in 1861, States R. Gist was assigned to
the position of adjutant and inspector general, in which capacity he
rendered valuable service in the preparation for the occupation of
Charleston harbor and the reduction of Fort Sumter. He went to
Virginia as a volunteer aide to General Bee, and at the critical
moment in the first battle of Manassas, when Gen. J. E. Johnston rode
to the front with the colors of the Fourth Alabama at his side,
Beauregard relates that "noticing Col. S. R. Gist, an aide to General
Bee, a young man whom I had known as adjutant-general of South
Carolina, and whom I greatly esteemed, I presented him as an able and
brave commander to the stricken regiment, who cheered their new
leader, and maintained under him to the end of the day, their
previous gallant behavior." Gist was wounded in this action, but he
subsequently resumed his duties as adjutant-general, organizing South
Carolina troops for the war, until in March, 1862, he was
commissioned brigadier-general in the Confederate service, and
ordered to report to General Pemberton, then in command of the
department. He was after this on duty on the South Carolina coast, in
command east of James Island in June, on that island from July;
temporarily in command of the first district, and in December, 1862,
in command of the troops ordered to the relief of Wilmington, until
May, 1863, when he was ordered to take command of a brigade and go to
the assistance of General Pemberton in Mississippi. Reaching Jackson
his command formed part of the troops under J. E. Johnston, took part
in the engagement of May 14th at Jackson, marched to the Big Black
river just before the surrender of Vicksburg, and then returning to
Jackson was besieged by Sherman. His brigade comprised the Forty-
sixth Georgia, Fourteenth Mississippi and Twenty-fourth South
Carolina, the Sixteenth South Carolina soon afterward being
substituted for the Mississippi regiment, and was assigned to the
division of Gen. W. H. T. Walker. He fought gallantly at
Chickamauga, commanding during part of the battle Ector's and
Wilson's brigades, his own brigade being led by Colonel Colquitt, and
on Sunday commanding Walker's division. At an important stage of the
fight Gen. D. H. Hill called for Gist's brigade for dangerous duty,
in the performance of which it suffered severely. He continued in
conspicuous and valuable service; during the battle of Missionary
Ridge commanded Walker's division, and throughout the Atlanta
campaign of 1864 was identified with that division. After the fall of
General Walker he was transferred to Cheatham's division, which he
commanded for some time during the fall campaign of that year. At the
terribly destructive battle of Franklin, Tenn., he was one of the
noblest of the brave men whose lives were sacrificed. Attended by
Capt. H. D. Garden and Lieut. Frank Trenholm, of his staff, he rode
down the front, and after ordering the charge and waving his hat to
the Twenty-fourth, rode away in the smoke of battle, never more to be
seen by the men he had commanded on so many fields. His horse was
shot, and he was leading the right of the brigade on foot when he
fell, pierced through the heart."
