Mordecai Gist
Brigadier General, Continental Army

Mordecai Gist was born on 22 February 1742, the son of Thomas and Susanna Gist in Baltimore, MD.

In 1774 with his personal fortune, Gist established the Baltimore Independent Company, which became the Maryland 5th Infantry. In 1776 he was appointed Major in the Regular Army and served in action in the north. In January 1779, Congress appointed him a Brigadier General in the Continental Army, and he took Command of the 2nd Maryland Brigade. In 1779 he was transferred to the Southern Campaign, and distinguished himself at the Battle of Camden in South Carolina.

In 1781, at the head of a Light Corps, he was present at the siege and capture of Yorktown. In 1782, he rallied the Americans under Laurens at the battle of the Combahee, and gained a decisive victory.

After the war he retired to a plantation near Charleston, SC. He married three times and had two sons, Independent and States, and a daughter, Susanna. Gist served as the first Vice President of the Maryland Society of the Cincinnati.

Death and Burial

Mordecai Gist died at his home on 2 August 1792 at the age of 49. He is buried at Saint Michaels Church Cemetery in Charleston, SC.