Mordecai Gist
| Mordecai Gist | |
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Mordecai Gist.
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| Born | 1743 |
| Died | 1792 (aged 49) |
| Occupation | American general |
Mordecai Gist (1743–1792) was a member of a prominent Maryland family who became a general in command of the Maryland Line in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War.
Gist was born in Baltimore, 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 Richard Gist (1655 or 1659 – Feb. 1690), was an English emigrant who came to the Province of Maryland before 1682 and settled in "South Canton" on the south bank of the Patapsco River. Christopher Richard Gist married Edith Cromwell (1660–1694), who is believed to have been a relative of Oliver Cromwell.
Gist was the nephew of Christopher Gist (1706–1759), a son of Richard Gist. 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 Colonel George 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 to John Eager Howard.
Mordecai Gist was educated for commercial pursuits. At the beginning of the American Revolution, the young men of Baltimore associated under the title of the "Baltimore Independent Company" and elected Gist as their captain. It was the first company raised in Maryland for the defense of popular liberty.
In 1776, Gist was appointed major of a battalion of regulars, and was with them in the battle near Brooklyn, where they fought a delaying action at the Old Stone House (Brooklyn, New York), allowing the American army to escape encirclement.
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