As you can tell, being new to the site, I'm reviewing this and other older threads for information and comparing it with what I'm reading in Long's Almanac, The Civil War Day by Day.
For the January 28, 1863, entry in that book, the author states, "Mr. Davis wrote Maj. Gen. T.H. Holmes in the Trans-Mississippi that 'The loss of either of the two positions, - Vicksburg and Port Hudson - would destroy communications with the Trans-Mississippi Department and inflict upon the Confederacy an injury which I am sure you have not failed to appreciate'".
Coming from Pres. Davis, who must have known the military value of all areas, doesn't his comment suggest that considerable valuable resources were successfully making their way from points west of the river, including Mexico, to Southern depots and armies east of the river?
Norm