States Rights Gist

In January 1861, after South Carolina had seceded from the Union on December 20, 1860, the new governor Francis Pickens appointed Gist as state adjutant and inspector general.[1] In this capacity, Gist acquired weapons and mobilized military manpower throughout the state. Also he briefly oversaw operations in preparation for the state's occupation of the harbor of Charleston and the federal Fort Sumter.[1]

The new Confederate government took over this operation in February 1861 and appointed General P. G. T. Beauregard to command it.[1] Gist accompanied Pickens and Beauregard for the raising of state and Confederate flags over Fort Sumter after its surrender on April 14, 1861.[1]

In July 1861, Gist was assigned by General Joseph E. Johnston to the Confederate Army of the Potomac as a volunteer aide-de-camp to another South Carolina general, Brig. Gen. Barnard Bee, and accompanied Bee on July 20, 1861 to the First Battle of Manassas.[1][6] Bee was killed during the battle soon after giving Stonewall Jackson his famous nickname.[4] General Beauregard assigned Gist to lead the 4th Alabama Regiment after Bee and the regiment's Colonel Jones were killed in the battle.[1] Gist himself was slightly wounded.[1]

After the Battle of First Manassas, Gist returned to Columbia to prepare state forces to defend Port Royal in the fall of 1861 and to be absorbed into the Confederate Army in winter 1862.[1] On March 20, 1862, through the influence of Confederate Senator James Chesnut of South Carolina (the husband of Mary Chesnut, who became known as a diarist of the war and its effect on planter society), Gist was appointed a brigadier general in the Confederate Army. He commanded the James Island military district and a brigade in coastal defenses between May 1862 and May 1863.[1][7][8]

Gist was third in command of Confederate forces at the Battle of Secessionville in June 1862, commanded troops sent to oppose a landing by Union forces at Pocotaligo, South Carolina in October 1862, led a small division of reinforcements in North Carolina between December 1862 and January 1863, and was present at the Union naval attack on Charleston on April 7, 1863.[1] He was not personally involved in combat operations at any of these battles or events.[1]

In May 1863, Gist and Brig. Gen. W.H.T. Walker led two brigades of South Carolina troops to reinforce Confederate forces under Gen. Joseph E. Johnston in Mississippi. They were trying to relieve Confederate forces under attack at Vicksburg by the Union Army, then commanded by Major General Ulysses S. Grant in a push to take the fortress city to gain control of the Mississippi River.[1]

After arriving in Mississippi, Walker was promoted to major general and Gist's brigade was placed in Walker's division.[1] They participated in the Vicksburg Campaign and the Battle of Jackson, Mississippi.[1][9] Johnston's efforts in the Vicksburg Campaign were unsuccessful and the fortress city fell to the Union Army under General Grant on July 4, 1863.[1]

After the Vicksburg Campaign, in August 1863 Walker's division was sent to Chattanooga, Tennessee to join General Braxton Bragg's Army of Tennessee.[1] Gist's brigade was stationed first at Rome, Georgia, but on September 17, 1863, Gist was ordered to return with his brigade to Walker's division.[1]

Gist and his men arrived at the Battle of Chickamauga on the morning of September 20, 1863 to find that Gist had to take command of the division because Walker was in temporary command of a corps.[1][8] Gist's brigade lost 170 men in 45 minutes as they tried to plug a hole in the line of Maj. Gen. John C. Breckinridge.[1]

Gist again commanded Walker's division during the Third Battle of Chattanooga in November 1863.[1][8][9] The division served as the rear guard for the retreat of Breckinridge's corps from Missionary Ridge.[1] While many of Bragg's principal subordinates opposed him during the turmoil in the Army of Tennessee in the fall of 1863, Walker and Gist remained loyal to Bragg.[1]

Gist's brigade remained with Walker's division during the Atlanta Campaign.[1] During the Battle of Atlanta Walker was killed and Gist was wounded in a hand on July 22, 1864.[1][7] On July 24, 1864, Walker's division was broken up and Gist's brigade was assigned to the division of Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Cheatham.[1] Gist returned to duty a month later after recuperating from his wound.[2]

After the Battle of Atlanta, Gist commanded a brigade under Maj. Gen. John C. Brown during Lt. Gen. John Bell Hood's Franklin-Nashville Campaign.[1]

A bust of Gist by George T. Brewster at Vicksburg National Military Park

Gist was shot in the chest while leading his brigade in a charge against U.S. fortifications at the Battle of Franklin on November 30, 1864.[1] He was leading the brigade on foot after his horse had been shot.[1] Two sources state that he died of his wounds soon after at a field hospital in Franklin, Tennessee but two others state that he was killed instantly on the battlefield.[2][7][10] He was one of twelve Confederate generals who were casualties that day, six of them killed in action.[11]

Gist had proven to be a brave and competent soldier who trained his men well and could be trusted with commands higher than his nominal grade.[1] He is buried in the Trinity Episcopal churchyard in downtown Columbia, South Carolina.[12]