February 3, 1863 Tuesday
Queen of the West under Ellet below the mouth of the Red River, met Confederate steamer A. W. Baker coming up river. Baker, "not liking the Queen's looks," ran ashore but was captured. She had just delivered her cargo to Port Hudson and was returning for another. Ellet had placed a guard on board when another steamer, Moro, was seen coming down stream. "A shot across her bows," Ellet reported, "brought her to . . . laden with 110,000 pounds of pork, nearly 500 hogs, and a large quantity of salt, destined for the rebel army at Port Hudson."
Running short of coal, Ellet turned back upriver, destroying 25,000 pounds of meal awaiting transportation to Port Hudson. Stopping at. the mouth of the Red River to release the civilians captured on Baker, and Moro, he also seized steamer Berwick Bay. She, too, carried a large cargo for Port Hudson: 200 barrels of molasses, 10 hogsheads of sugar, 30,000 pounds of flour, and 40 bales of cotton. Ellet ordered his prizes destroyed and returned to his position below Vicksburg. Some $200,000 worth of property had been destroyed by Queen of the West.
A Confederate attack on Fort Donelson/Dover in Tennessee was repulsed by the Federal garrison and gunboats (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dover_(1863) ). In Tennessee also there was a skirmish at the Cumberland Iron Works, and Feb 3-5 an expedition from Murfreesboro to Auburn, Liberty, and Alexandria, by the North.
In Washington the French minister, M. Mercier, talked with Sec of State Seward, offering French mediation of the war, but the suggestion was turned down. The levee at Yazoo Pass, far north of Vicksburg, Mississippi was opened in an attempt to reach the city via the Yazoo River.
C.S.S. Alabama, commanded by Captain Semmes, captured and burned at sea schooner Palmetto, bound from New York to San Juan, Puerto Rico, with cargo of provisions. Of the chase of Palmetto, Semmes said: "It was beautiful to see how the Alabama performed her task, working up into the wind's eye, and overhauling her enemy, with the case of a trained courser coming up with a saddle-nag."
U.S.S. Sonoma, under Commander Stevens, captured blockade running British bark Springbok off the Bahamas.