On February 2, 1863, Charles Rivers Ellet was ordered by Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter to make a run down the Mississippi River in the Queen of the West past the batteries of Vicksburg to support Admiral Farragut south of the city.
This was done in daylight and for fifty straight minutes the Queen of the West was under fire. The ship took twelve hits but sustained just minimal damage. Once past the batteries, Ellet found the CSS City of Vicksburg (also called the CSS Vicksburg) docked. Ellet rammed her and set her on fire.
Enemy fire, however, forced the Queen of the West to disengage. Damage to the Vicksburg ended her days as a fighting ship and she ended up as just a wharf ship after machinery was removed.
Union forces supplied the Queen of the West with 20,000 bushels of coal by floating an unmanned coal barge past Vicksburg.
On February 3 the Queen of the West captured three Confederate transport ships: CSS A.W. Baker, CSS Moro, and CSS Berwick Bay. Two of them were loaded with supplies for Vicksburg.
--Old B-R'er
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