Mordecai Gist | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1743 (1743) |
| Died | 1792(1792-00-00) (aged 48–49) South Carolina, U.S. |
| Allegiance |  United States |
| Branch |  Continental Army |
| Rank |  Brigadier general |
| Commands | 2nd Maryland Brigade |
| Battles / wars | |
| Signature |  |
Mordecai Gist (1743–1792) was a member of a prominent Maryland family who became abrigadier general in command of theMaryland Line in theContinental Army during theAmerican Revolutionary War.
Gist was born February 22, 1742/3[1] inBaltimore,Maryland (one source says Reisterstown, Maryland), the fourth child of Thomas and Susannah (Cockey) Gist. Thomas Gist's father, Captain Richard Gist (1684 – August 28, 1741), was the surveyor of Maryland's Eastern Shore and one of the commissioners who laid out Baltimore Town in 1729. Richard Gist's father, Christopher Gist (1655 or 1659 – Feb. 1690), was anEnglish immigrant who came to theProvince of Maryland before 1682 and settled in "South Canton" on the south bank of the Patapsco River. Christopher Gist married Edith Cromwell (1660–1694).
Gist was the nephew ofChristopher Gist (1706–1759). This Christopher Gist was a Colonial-era explorer, scout, and frontier settler who was employed by the Ohio Company and had served with 21-year-old ColonelGeorge Washington. (Christopher Gist is credited with twice saving Washington's life when they were surveying land in the Ohio country in 1753.) Mordecai Gist was also distantly related toJohn Eager Howard.
Mordecai Gist was educated for commercial pursuits. At the beginning of theAmerican Revolution, the young men ofBaltimore associated under the title of the "Baltimore Independent Company" and elected Gist as theircaptain. It was the first company raised inMaryland for the defense of popular liberty.
In 1776, Gist was appointedmajor of Smallwood's Maryland Regiment, and was with them in theBattle of Long Island, where they fought a delaying action at theOld Stone House (Brooklyn, New York), allowing the American army to escape encirclement.[2][3][4]
In January 1779, theContinental Congress appointed him as abrigadier general in theContinental Army, and he took the command of the 2nd Maryland Brigade. He fought stubbornly at theBattle of Camden inSouth Carolina in 1780. At one time after a bayonet charge, his force secured fifty prisoners, but theBritish underLord Cornwallis rallied, and the Marylanders gave way. Gist escaped, and, a year later, he was present at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. (Gist appears (back row, right side) inJohn Trumbull's paintingSurrender of Lord Cornwallis which hangs in the rotunda of the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C.)
He joined the southern army underNathanael Greene,[5] and he was given the command of the light corps again when the army was remodeled in 1782. On August 26, 1782, he rallied the broken forces of the Americans underJohn Laurens after they had been scattered in an ambush set by a British foraging party.
After the war, Gist relocated to aplantation nearCharleston, South Carolina. He was admitted as an original member of TheSociety of the Cincinnati ofMaryland and was elected as the first vice president of the Maryland Society on November 22, 1783.[6] He later transferred his membership to the South Carolina Society.[7] Gist also served as the grand master ofFreemasons inSouth Carolina.[8]
He had two children that lived to adulthood, both sons, one of whom he named "Independent" and the other "States." Various sources suggest he died between August and September 1792,[9] at the age of 49, inCharleston, but his will was written on the "First day of September" and probated the following month on October 19, 1792.[10] He is buried inSt. Michael's Churchyard[11] next to his son, States Gist, and daughter Susannah Gist.
Mordecai Gist was distantly related toStates Rights Gist, abrigadier general in theConfederate army during theAmerican Civil War who died of wounds received while leading his brigade in a charge against U.S. fortifications at theBattle of Franklin in November 1864. States Rights Gist was the grandson of William Gist (born 1711), cousin of Mordecai Gist.[12]
His papers are held at theMaryland Historical Society.[13]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Wilson, J. G.;Fiske, J., eds. (1891)."Gist, Mordecai".Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography. Vol. 3. New York: D. Appleton. p. 663.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
