Affairs in New Orleans.
We have had the pleasure of an interview with
Col. T. J. Reid, of the 12th Arkansas regiment, whose escape from New Orleans on the 14th December, has already been reported by telegraph.--
Col. R. corrects some reports respecting the
Fort Jackson affair.
He places no credit in the statement that the garrison of
Fort St. Phillip has joined in the outbreak.
The garrison of
Fort Jackson was probably from one to two colored regiments, with 30 white officers, 27 of whom were put to death; the others escaped.
He had heard no account of the liberation of the
Confederate prisoners in the
Fort, all of whom he believes to be civilians, though there may be a few officers among them.
Neither had he heard of an extra being insured by the
True Delta and suppressed; indeed they would not have dared to publish it.
Banks sent an order to the papers to state that there had been a slight disturbance at
Fort Jackson, but no bloodshed, as was rumored in the city.
A caution was appended, not to comment upon it or upon the news from
Fort Jackson.
The rebellion was not the result of a collision between the men and their officers, but had evidently been previously planned, and grew out of the general dissatisfaction of the negroes with their new masters.
The garrison of the fort consists of regiments of free negroes that were organized by
Butler, and who elected officers from their own body.
These officers were reduced to the ranks by
Gen. Banks.
Some of the privates have been sentenced by courts martial to several years' service without pay — have been, in fact, sentenced to slavery.
The
Yankees send off all "contrabands" immediately on their arrival to the
Government plantations, where the discipline of the lash is administered with unheard of severity.
These, and such as these, are the causes which have exasperated the minds of the negroes and led them to the revolt.
The excitement and apprehension which it has produced may be judged from the fact that on the morning of the 14th a salute was fired on the arrival of two brigades of white troops, who are supposed to have been collected from points between New Orleans and
Brashear City.
Among other items of New Orleans news, we learn from
Col. Reid that nineteen Confederate officers and something like 800 privates were to have left on or about the 13th for
Franklin's command, to be exchanged for Federal prisoners in
Gen. Taylor's hands.
Among these are
Lieut.- Col. Guess, of the 31st, and
Adjutant Howard, of the 7th Texas.
The supposed reason for this exchange is, that
Gen. Taylor has captured some of the
Yankee pets, whom they wish to recover--
Col. Knott for one, son of
Captain Knott, of
Banks's staff.
All these exchanged prisoners belong to the Trans Mississippi department.
Col. Guess was captured at
Morganza, after the fight, by some Yankee stragglers, he having gone upon the field to seek for the body of a friend whom he supposed to be killed.
The pre-occupation of our space obliges us to omit, for the present at least, many interesting matters gathered in our conversation with
Col. Reid, but he would not excuse us if we failed to notice the unflinching patriotism and untiring devotion to the wants of the suffering prisoners of the New Orleans ladies.
Their spirit is unsubdued, and it is their glory that they — the only foes that
Butler ever dared encounter — defeated the Beast, and that he and his minions have never recovered from the wounds of stinging contempt which the women of New Orleans inflicted on them, and under which they still writhe.
The
Yankees and their adherents are exiles from good society; no one of them has ever gained entrance into a decent family, except when he went
officially to insult a lady or to steal something--
Mobile Register. 
