Brigadier-General Ellison Capers, Confederate Military History, a library of Confederate States Military History: Volume 5, South Carolina
Clement Anselm Evans, Ed.

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[597] appointed United States commissioner in 1851 he was yet serving in that capacity when the State seceded. Upon the organization of the Confederate States judiciary he was appointed to his former duties, also as prize commissioner, by Judge Magrath, but after about six months tenure of this office he sought military service and was elected first lieutenant of the Charleston Zouaves. When the independent commands were ordered to be organized into regiments, he received authority from the war department to organize a company of heavy artillery and enlisted a gallant body of men. Of this command, subsequently known as the Gist Guards, he declined the captaincy in favor of Charles B. Chichester, and accepted the rank of first lieutenant. After participating in the battle of Secessionville, and thirty-two days fighting at Battery Wagner, in the course of which he received a scalp wound, he was promoted to captain of his company after Captain Chichester was retired on account of an injury received at Battery Wagner. But immediately afterward he was detailed by General Beauregard as judge advocate-general of the department of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Upon Captain Gilchrist's subsequent protests that a captain should not be kept from his command, Beauregard recommended his promotion to major, but it was not acted upon. Captain Gilchrist continued on duty at department headquarters under Beauregard's successors, Gens. Sam Jones, A. P. Hill and Hardee, and the latter, reviving the recommendation of General Beauregard, secured the captain's promotion to major. When General Hardee moved out from Charleston to oppose Sherman's advance Major Gilchrist was left at the city, and when the evacuation occurred, on the morning of February 18th, he was left at Charleston with an escort of sixty or seventy men of the Stono Scouts, to observe the enemy's movements, and did not leave the city until the Federal forces entered. Then joining his chief at Kingstree, he remained on duty to the end, participating in the battles of Averasboro and Bentonville, and at the surrender serving as paroling officer by appointment of General Johnston. On his return to Charleston, Major Gilchrist practiced law there until about 1870, when he went north to care for a large estate in the Adirondacks, and was engaged in the practice for two years at Saratoga Springs. Soon after his return to