A Dictionary of the Book of Mormon/Gilead
GILEAD. A Jaredite military commander who contended with Coriantumr for the throne. He succeeded his brother Shared in the command of the armies opposed to Coriantumr. Their first battle occurred in the wilderness of Akish, when many thousands were slain Gilead remained for a time in the wilderness, watched by Coriantumr; but eventually he made a night attack on the enemy, and the latter, being drunken, suffered great loss. Gilead then placed himself on the throne of Coriantumr, and both commanders busied themselves in gathering men to strengthen their respective armies. Gilead, who had the sympathy of some of the secret combinations, received great strength during the two years they were thus engaged, but he was slain by his own high priest as he sat on the throne; an evidence of the intensely corrupt state of society among the Jaredites of that time (towards the close of the seventh century B. C).