Charles Rivers Ellet & the Queen of the West-- Part 3

A major reason for the Queen of the West to run past the Vicksburg batteries was to disrupt trade going on between Port Hudson and Vicksburg via supplies coming down the Red River.

The Berwick hay gad to be destroyed however.

SECOND MISSION  February 8, 1863

The Queen of the West rendezvoused with the DeSoto and on February 12, both ships went down the Atchafalaya River and destroyed Confederate material.

On February 12, the two ships went up the Red River and captured the Era No. 5.  Then, the Queen of the West went further upstream and came under fire from Fort DeRussy and grounded thanks to a misdirected order to its pilot, who turned the ship instead of backing back down the river as ordered.  The Queen was getting hit often and finally Charles Rivers Ellet had to order the ship to be abandoned.

Ellet and the crew floated down the river on cotton bales until rescued by the DeSoto.  The ship was not burned because of concern for the first mate  who was wounded and could not be moved.

The Queen  was captured, repaired and entered service in the Confederate Navy as the CSS Queen of the West.

--Old B-R'er