The Tragedy (sic) of Franklin quite possible mat have been averted had this scholarly South Carolina Blue Blood been given the promotion to division command that his service record warranted. Completely reorganizing the South Carolina State Militia, the South Carolina College graduate made sure his home state was ready when Lincoln was elected. Taking command of Barnard Bee's brigade after Bee's death at First Manassas, Gist was promoted to Brigadier General on March20, 1862. He fought gallantly at Chickamauga, Chattanooga, and in the Atlanta Campaign. As the Brigade assembled in front of Franklin on November 30, 1864, it was still smarting (the 24th SC in particular) from the lack of initiative that had deprived it of victory the night before at Spring Hill. The Brigade, made up of The (sic) 46th, 65th & 2nd Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters, and the 16th and Crack (sic) 24th South Carolina slammed into the 72nd Illinois and 111th Ohio causing the 72nd to "Break and Run" (sic). Having his horse shot from under him, Gist sprinted for the locust abatis, Gist went down with a bullet in the chest. He died the next morning at The Harrison House. He was buried, first in a private cemetery in Franklin, then and finally, at Trinity Episcopal Church in Columbia, South Carolina.
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