States Rights Gist was born September 3, 1831 in Union, South Carolina. States Rights was not a nickname; Gist was named for his father’s political beliefs. Gist’s father, Nathaniel, was a supporter of South Carolina’s Ordinance of Nullification, which declared the federal tariffs of 1828 and 1832 unconstitutional and null and void within the sovereign boundaries of South Carolina. Gist was known by his first name, States.
Gist graduated from South Carolina and attended Harvard Law School, but did not graduated. Afterward he returned to Union to practice law. In 1863, Gist married Jane Adams, whose father, James Hopkins Adams, was a former governor of South Carolina.
In 1853, Gist entered the South Carolina militia and served as captain of a volunteer company. By 1856, Gist was a brigadier general. In 1858, General Gist was appointed aide-de-camp to the governor, his cousin William Henry Gist. In April 1860, Gist resigned from the militia to become a full-time advisor to the governor. In October that year, Governor Gist sent his cousin to visit other Southern governors to lobby for support for secession in the event of the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States.
After Lincoln was elected on November 6, 1860, South Carolina left the Union on December 20, 1860. In January 1861, new South Carolina Governor Francis Pickens appointed Gist as state adjutant and inspector general. In this capacity, Gist helped to prepare the state for war by mobilizing manpower and acquiring weapons. He was briefly in charge of preparations for the occupation of Charleston Harbor, but once the permanent Confederate government was formed, this responsibility fell to General Pierre G.T. Beauregard. Gist accompanies Beauregard to raise the South Carolina and Confederate flags over Fort Sumter after its surrender on April 14, 1861.
Gist entered into the service of the Confederate Army in July 1861 when General Joseph E. Johnston assigned him to the Confederate Army of the Potomac. On March 20, 1862, Gist was promoted to brigadier general and returned to South Carolina to command the James Island military district. He was third in command at the First Battle of James Island, where the Confederates defeated the Union attempt to capture Charleston.
In May 1863, Gist led a brigade of South Carolina troops to reinforce General Joseph E. Johnston’s forces under siege at Vicksburg. The effort was futile, and Vicksburg fell to Ulysses S. Grant’s troops the following month on July 4.
Gist subsequently went to Tennessee and led brigades in the Battle of Chickamauga and the Third Battle of Chattanooga. Gist was wounded in a hand at the Battle of Atlanta on July 22, 1864. After month recuperating, Gist returned to duty.
On November 30, 1864, while leading a brigade against Union fortifications in the Battle of Franklin in Tennessee, Gist’s horse was shot out from under him. Continuing to lead the brigade on foot, Gist was shot in the chest. There is some discrepancy as to when and where Gist died. Some reports state he was killed instantly on the battlefield, while others indicate he died soon after at a field hospital in Franklin.
States Rights Gist is buried in the Trinity Episcopal churchyard in Columbia, South Carolina.
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