Not exactly one of their better “strategic” moves, although I realize why they were inclined to do so, not having a navy to speak of.
Privateering had been outlawed by the Paris Declaration Respecting Maritime Law of 1856, which equated privateering with piracy. The United States hadn’t ratified that treaty, and so was not strictly bound by it, but the legitimacy of privateering as a means of warfare had clearly shifted to the wrong side of what was then termed the “law of nations.”
This only served to irritate France and Great Britain at a time when the con-feds were desperately trying to curry favor.
It didn’t last long. Davis signed only a few letters of Marque. The British and French closed all of their ports to Confederate privateers. No place to sell their prize ships except run the blockade into a Southern port. The British, French and the United States government all declared that if they caught a Confederate privateer they would be treated as pirates, not prisoners of war. By mid 1862 no more Southern ship captains sailed under a letter of Marque from the Confederate Government.