The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1869-04-13
CHI ARIES TON.
TUESDAY MORNING, APRIL 10, 1869.
Gufin to the Rescue!H

Gufin, of Abbeville, the individual who
enrolled the negro militia, has written 6
letter to the. Abbeville Press, in which he
gives clear and intelligent account of hiE
proceedings in raising negro company
This letter is reprinted in another column.
and it is so evidently written for the pur.
pose of clearing away the cloud which rests
upon the hitherto spo:less character of Gov
ernor Scott, that we desire to speak Of il
with all possible respect.
In this letter Gufin says: 81 received
"orders from the Adjutant-G eneral to raise
"a company" This is right to the point;
but unfortunately, Scott, in his letter to
Mr.. Williams, said: "No orders have been
"issued for the enrolment of the militia.
az < Even the Adjutant- Generals Office
"has not yet been opened" This is rather o
bad beginning for Gufin, the more espe-
cially as he had told the people of Abbeville
that he was can agent Of the Governor and
"bore his commission as captain of the
company to be raised" And then to sim
mer down to su order from the Adjutant-
General when no orders of the kind chad
"been issued" and when ''the Adjutant-
Generals Office has not yet been opened. !"
Besides, Scott says, and he told the truth,
that the Adjutant General was "absent from
.ssthe s. s.e." And Elliott, the negro As
sistant Adjutant General, said few days
ago that ssno such order had passed through
s'the Adjutaot- Generals Office"
Gufin must have been dreaming; but upon
the strength Of the dream he declared that
he was to be the captain Of the company,
and did, as he says in his letter, enroll
company of oolored men. Dreaming still,
he came to the conclusion that the enlist
ment of negro troops would disorganize
labor, and he wrote letter, not to the
Adiutant- G eneral from whom he received
his instructions, but to Soott-"telling him
"of his fears about organizing colored
company"
This letter was certainly received by
Scott; but strange was the metamorphosis,
for, in the Williams letter, Scott says: "l
sam led to believe from letter received
"from Mr.. Guffn, Of Abbeville, that the
"Adjutant and Inspector General
"promised him the position of enrolling
"officer of that county when the enrolment
sis ordered" When the letter vas written
it was to tell Governor SCOTT Of the fears of
the adventurous Gufin. When the letter
was received it led Governor Scott to be-
lieye that Guffin had been promised GER
tain Office. There could not have been one
word more, because Scott says "this-the
"letter about the enrolling ofhoe-may
shave given rise to the rumors Of enlist
"ments and excitement in the neighborhood
ssspoken of by The NEWS, and Of Which 1
ssknov nothing, except what I gather from
.its fulmiuations." Mind, sixty-6ve negroes
had been enrolled and the fears of Gufin
had driven him to write to Scott. The
letter, however, only led Scott to be-
lieve that Gufin expected to be enrolling
officer. Only this, and nothing more
Anxious to ease the mind of Gufin the
rash, Scott replied at once, directing him
according to the Williams letter-s'if any
"of the colored people had supposed that
"they were to be Immediately enrolled to
"disabuse them of the notion" There was
not word about Guftin being made on en-
rolling officer, which, according to Scott,
was the subject of Gufin's letter; but seve,
raj words about the enlistment of the ne
groes, of which Scott says that he knew
nothing until he saw it in The NEWS.
This is not the end of it. Scott's letter
must have been as successfully manipulated
on its way to Gudin as Gutfin's was ON its
way to Scott; for Guf6n says that ellis
"Exoellency R. X. Scott" instructed him
"to notify all those wishing to enroll them
"selves in the militia that for The present the
.enrollment ViU be SUSPENDED" which is o
very different matter, or as President Grant
would say-a horse of another color.
What tangled web is this! ! What con.
fusion worse confounded In the frsl
place Gufin, whom SCOTT declares to be "as
respectable and patriotic gentleman as
"auy in Abbeville County," says that he
had Constructions from the Adjutant- Gene
''ral to raise company Scott says en-
phatically, "No orders have been issued for
''the enrolment of the militia" Then
Gufhu says that he enrolled colored men
and wrote to Governor Scott "telling him
"his fears" Scott says that Gufin's letter
led him to believe that Gufin had been
promised the post of enrolling officer in
Abbeville. le.COurty. Then, in the third place,
Guf6u says that Scott, in reply to his letter,
instructed him to notify the would-be mi
litia "that for the present the enrolment ,oill
st6e SUSPENDED" Scott declares that he
had given no orders for the immediate
formation of negro troops, and that no orders
had been issued for the enrolment of the