The Daily Dispatch: December 29, 1863., [Electronic resource]

---

---

Later from New Orleans.
the mutiny at Fort Jackson--affairs at New Orleans.

The Mobile Register has the following further accounts from New Orleans, including some additional facts of the Fort Jackson mutiny. It obtains them from Capt. Louis J. Girad, Chief of Ordnance of Gen. Gardner's staff, who escaped from New Orleans on the 10th inst. The news of the mutiny reached town early in the morning, being telegraphed from Port St. Philip, and at 10 o'clock three gunboats and two transports started down the river. The account says:

‘ The first report was that the negroes had killed forty-five officers; by noon rumor had swelled this number to seventy-five; and in the evening, when Capt. G. left, he heard some Yankee officers conversing on the subject, who placed it at two hundred and seven. These may be exaggerated reports of a state of panic, but of the substantial fact of the mutiny there is no doubt.

’ The True Delta undertook to publish the news in an extra, but it was suppressed, only three or four copies being sold. Speculations were various as to the immediate cause of the mutiny, but the general supposition was that the negroes, demoralized by the gift of nominal freedom, were impatient for larger liberty. Some supposed that as Christmas was approaching, they wanted their customary holidays. There were from 250 to 275 Confederate prisoners in the fort, about half a dozen of whom were officers, the rest civilians. It was rather presumed, than actually understood, that the negroes had turned the fort over to them.

In the evening a gunboat on the lake went down to Fort Pike and when Capt. Girard was on the lake he heard heavy firing in that direction. The Yankees are very much puzzled what to do with the great number of negroes they have forced into their army, and have distributed them in heavy garrisons at different points, supposed to be about as follows: Fort Jackson 3,000, Fort.St. Philip 2,000, Fort Pike 2,000, Fort Parapet 2,000, Baton Rouge 1,000, Port Hudson 3,000. In New Orleans there are three black and three white regiments of infantry, one black regiment and three white companies of cavalry, and three white companies of the 21st Indiana artillery, with 8 20-pounders, 2 6 pounders, and 2 12-pounder howitzers. At Manchaca there are 300 white troops.

Gen. Banks had but recently returned from the Rio Grande, and on the 7th, by his order, a saint was fired in honor of Gen. Grant's victory, on the night of the 8th Mrs. Banks gave a grand fete in honor of the same glorious event, and on the 9th the "trois grands journeys" culminated in the first negro insurrection of the war.

Mrs. Banks's party was a splendid affair. We were shown one of the cards, which fell into the possession of a Confederate prisoner, who made use of it by spending an hour among the Yankees. The card is in a new style, precisely five inches long by two and four-tenths wide. We give a copy for the edification of the ten of Mobile:

"Mrs. Nathaniel P. Banks

requests the pleasure of your company Tuesday evening, Dec. 8, at 8½ o'clock.

On daneera, Coliseum Place."

Among recent items of news, Capt. Girard reports the burning by Confederate partisans of two schooners engaged in transmitting cattle on Bayou Lacombe, between Madisonville and Pass Manchaca. On his way through it was reported by three different Confederate pickets which he met that on Friday, the 11th, Gen. Taylor gave Franklin's division a whipping at the month of Red River, driving them to the gunboats, and on the 12th bombarded Baton Rouge.

Gen. Gardner and the other Confederate officers at New Orleans are well, and are allowed a parols of four hours a day. Capt. Girard, though in the immediate vicinity, was not counted among them, the Yankees having lost him through taking too good care of him. On the 3d of October sixty officers, of whom he was one, were shipped on board the Evening Star for New York with a promise of exchange when they arrived there. This promise was basely violated, and they were ordered to be sent to Johnson's Island. Eighty soldiers were sent to guard them, and he discovering that they were to be taken to Governor's Island preparatory to their Western trip, notified the officer who had them in charge from New Orleans, that he considered his parole (which was given for the voyage) at an end. This officer, Major Charles E. Clarks, 6th Missouri (Federal) Artillery, was indignant at the perfidious conduct of his Government, and said he would try to do what he could for them, but he had no hopes of effecting anything. The parole, he said, was at an and, and he should turn them over to the guard. Capt. G. handed his sword — which he still wore, under the terms of the capitulation of Port Hudson — to a brother officer, exchanged his cap for the hat of the other, apparently in jest, and slipped ashore; another officer, whose name we forget, escaping at the same time.

He remained eight days in New York, frequenting the places of amusement, all of which were crowded, and all of which the evening's entertainment was sure to wind up with some fling at the Administration, generally in the form of a song, the chorus of which would convey an exhortation to restore the Union by sticking to the Constitution and putting down Abolition. From New York he tried to get through Maryland to our lines, but was too closely watched, and returned to New York, whence he went to Louisville. In passing through Ohio he found the people looking with great interest for the result of the Tennessee campaign, which they hoped would enable them to get to Atlanta, when the Confederacy would be cut in two and the rebellion crushed. Louisville he represents as subjugated. A few men still have confidence in Southern success, but the most crushing tyranny prevails — no one dares to say a word.

From Louisville it was the object of our adventurer to make his way through to Chattanooga; but here again he was detected and obliged to take a new track to throw the Lincoln spies off the scent. Finally, at St. Louis, he found himself in security. The feud between the conservatives and the radicals there is exceedingly bitter, and the conservatives court the secessionists, in hopes of their assistance to crush their opponents. The consequence is that the authority and even the orders of Gen. Schofield are utterly disregarded, and everybody says and does pretty much what he pleases. Captain G. felt himself perfectly secure from espionage; went about freely in public, and on one occasion dined at the Planters' Hotel at the same table with Gen. Herron, whose fellow-passenger he had been from New Orleans to New York. Here he took passage for New Orleans, but here our narrative of his adventures must conclude, his trip down the river and his sojourn of a month in New Orleans being forbidden topics.

We would add to what we have written down from recollection of our conversation with Capt. Girard that he has recent intelligence from Johnson's Island, where our officers are now living on something less than half rations, and Col. Miles, Capt. Bewitt, of Miles's Legion, and Col. Ben Johnson, of the 15th Arkansas, are in irons for an attempt to escape.

The New Orleans Times, of the 12th, under the heading of "The Affair at Fort Jackson--Unfounded Reports — The Matter of No Serious Consequence"--gives the following remarkably brief account of the affair:

‘ Some excitement occurred at Fort Jackson on the evening of the 9th inst., in the course of an altercation between one of the officers and some of the men.

’ Fortunately the disturbance was seen quested, and order was restored in the garrison without bloodshed.

The Time has also an editorial on the subject, of which the following is an extract:

‘ For the past day and half the city has been rife with rumors of a great and disastrous revolt among the men at Fort Jackson, and like every other report, the more it spread the greater became the exaggeration. The climax was reached, and the authors were satisfied, we believe, when they had killed off about eighty-five officers, blown up the magazine, spiked more or loss guns, &c. But this report, strange to say, was in part believed by a great number of persons presumed to be less credulous, and was exercising a mischievous influence over a portion of the community.

’ To get at the truth of the matter we visited headquarters and obtained an authentic version of the affair, which we printed in a small slip yesterday evening, and insert in our columns this morning. It will be seen the only foundation for all the reports was an altercation between an officer and some of his men, which created some slight excitement, but without any serious result. Thus another bubble on the waters of coveted evil has burst and revealed the hollow and uncertain nature of exciting reports.