Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1898-10-22
"JIM The PENMAN."
The Doughty Tin Colonel Attacks Sure
Enough Colonel.

The Doughty Tin Colonel Attacks Sure
Enough Colonel.
Greenville Mountaineer.
The Mountaineer has been honored
by the following characteristic letter
from Lieutenant. Colonel James H.
Tillman, of the First South Carolina,
who has been before the public gaze to
a considerable extent recently:
HEADQUARTERS FIRST SOUTH CARO-
LIMA VOLUNTEER INFANTRY,
COLUMBIA, s. c., Oct. Is, 1898.
To the Editor of the Greenville Noun
taineer, Greenville, S. c.:
"My attention was called, short
while ago, to a scurrilous attack made
upon me in your paper, and had it not
been followed by a similar attack in
YOUR issue of the 18th inst, would
pay no attention at all to anything you
have said. To does seem that a
man who was formerly minister of
the gospel, ought to have higher re-
gard for the truth than has been ex-
hibited by you in either edition OF the
paper I have mentioned. Your state
ment that / went to Camp Lee, in
Columbia, on my return from Wash
ington, drunk, is refuted absolutely by
the card of a large number of the
members of the Second regiment,
which is herewith enclosed and which
I ask you to publish.
"Your statement in your edition OF
the 18th inst, that Lieutenants Grant
and Brown, of company G, are my
only friends among the commissioned
officers of this regiment, is in keeping
with your other statements and equal
ly untrue. I know but little about
Lieutenant Ligon, except that be is
named after the distinguished Wade
Hampton. AS for Lieutenant Gray,
who claims to have knocked somebody
down, he seems to have furnished you
with a statement of affairs in the First
regiment. 1 would say that never
heard of his knocking over anybody
until I read 1t In your paper. Perhaps
Lieutenant Gray may have been under
a delusion as it is often his habit to be
'drugged.'
~ have never claimed the credit for
having the regiment mustered out of
service other than the fact that carried
the petition to Washington. 1 have
never tried to poison or turn enlisted
men against their commanding officers,
and when a commanding officer says
his men were poisoned against him by
me, he convicts himself of bis own in
efficiency to command and deserves
the contempt of the men, which num-
ber of the officers have.
~ regret to say what have said. l
ask no quarter of these men who have
been prosecuting me, and when want
ed, the truth of the whole manage
ment of this regiment will come out,
and I think it will be seen that l have
been more 'sinned against than sin
ming
"As for this trial, it is all piece of
spitework, and 1 regard the whole
thing with utter contempt. AS for the
Negroes being brutally whipped re-
fer you to their own affidavits.
every respectfully yours,
"JAs. H. TILLMAN,
Lieut.. Col. 1st S. G. V. l."
This is certainly al extraordinary
production, and if the other statements
of Colonel Tillman are no nearer the
mark than his references 10 The Noun
taineer and its editor, there is very
little reliance to be placed upon them.
No fairminded and unprejudiced man
can say that the editorials concerning
Colonel Tillmun have been "scurril-
ous," as there is not Il single element
of scurrility in either of them. We
have not used any gross or obscene
language respecting him, and we have
originated no charges of any sort
against him. His own conduct is re-
sponsible for what we have printed,
and we have given the statements OF
others in regard to it. Rumors were
current here and elsewhere that Till
man was drunk at the camp of the
Second regiment near Columbia, when
Major Eaves ordered him to leave the
camp for his unmilitary conduct, and
although the rumor was plausible and
in keeping with direct statements from
others as to his habits, we did not
allude in any way to the matter until
soldier correspondent Of The YORK
VILE ENQUIRER made the distinct
and unequivocal charge that he was
drunk on that occasion. The EN-
QUIRER is one of the most careful and
reputable newspapers in the state, and
we accepted the statement of its cor
respondent as being entitled to Gre
dence, or else THE ENQUIRER would
not have printed so grave charge.
Colonel Tillman was thus achieving
such notoriety that we felt it was prop
er to make the comments of which he
complains. If he had been private
individual we would not have pre-
sumed to molest his obscurity, but he
was occupying a high position as a
of South Carolina, and
was making himself conspicuous in
various ways, until we felt that for
bearance was ceasing to be a virtue so
far as his alleged escapades were con-
cerned. And disgrace attaching to