The Anaconda Plan Essay Example

was later proposed to President Lincoln by himself.

The intention of President Lincoln’s meeting with his generals was to work out the Union military aims, discuss future plans, and, most importantly, to devise a strategy by which the Confederate states who had seceded could be brought back into the Union. At this meeting, many plans and strategies were proposed. One of the many plans that were discussed became to be known as the Anaconda Plan; which was the first military strategy proposed to Lincoln for crushing the rebellion of Southern states. This plan was proposed and devised by Winfield Scott and was his most famous military strategy.

It was nicknamed by the press, and the public, the Anaconda Plan, or “Scott’s Great Snake”. [2] It was labeled this because the blockade would be rather passive; therefore it was widely ridiculed by those who wanted a more energetic and powerful way to take down the South. These war-fevered people ridiculed this passive plan as a proposal "to squeeze the South to military death. "[3] They described it as being like an anaconda due to the way the plan would “strangle” the Confederacy in such a way like how an anaconda snake constricts its victims.

The snake image caught on, giving the plan its name that was commonly used during the Civil War, and today as well. The Anaconda Plan was an outline strategy for gaining back the seceded southern states. General Winfield Scott’s plan called for 60,000 troops move up the Mississippi River with gunboats until they had secured the river from Cairo, Ill. , to the Gulf. This, along with an effective

blockade, would seal off the South, blockade the saltwater ports of the South, and stop all commerce on the Mississippi River so no cotton could be exported and no war supplies could be imported, which was explained in the proposal’s four main parts.

These four parts was most important in the plan’s expected success, and were intended to choke the South into submission with the least bloodshed and in the most humane way possible. The first part was to divide the South by controlling the Mississippi River. This action would divide the South in half, which would weaken it. Then, once separated and weakened, the Union would strike from both sides at once with more ease and effectiveness. Second was to divide the South by capturing the Tennessee River Valley and marching through Georgia to the coast. Third was to capture the Confederate’s capital, Richmond, Virginia.

Fourth, which was the most important part of this plan, was a blockade of the South’s coast. This was to prevent them from exporting cotton, tobacco, and other cash crops and to keep them from importing much needed war supplies. Since cotton was the South’s staple product and what they relied on for economic success, if the trade of this were to be shut down then they would run out of funds and lose all financial power. The Confederate government was able to purchase a pound of cotton for as low as 8? , and sell it to Europe for as much as 54?. This sale was often above 300% profit while considering the costs of transport.

Therefore, if they were to lose this major source

of income, they would begin to crumble and lose any financial power they could possibly have over the Union. This plan was never adopted mainly due to Winfield Scott’s lack of planning. His proposal for the blockade was not properly a strategy, despite the fact that it is often referred to by historians as one. It did not estimate the forces that would be needed to guard the 3000 or more miles of coastline in the seceded states. [5] Nor did it consider an allocation of resources, set out a time line, or even name points of particular concern.

Due to this lack of planning, Lincoln was extremely skeptical of the plan’s possible success. It was because his doubt of the plan’s success that he chose to battle with the Confederacy in ground campaigns, rather than waiting for a slow strangulation of the Confederacy to occur. In the summer of 1864, General Grant and General Sherman combined forces and created a plan that was eerily reminiscent of Scott's initial plan yet it had in it warfare that the North and South required, that Anaconda Plan did not.

For example, the Battle of Pea Ridge was a result of Grant and Sherman’s plan. 6] That was the major difference in Scott's plan and the eventual tactical maneuver set forth by the two top Union generals of the war. In the end, the plan was a success after it was deployed against the Southern states of Tennessee and Virginia. Squeezing the Rebels into a bottleneck and culminating with the famous March to the Sea by General Sherman and eventual surrendering of the Confederate army and

nation. Therefore, although the original plan was never fully adopted, it did influence future plans of the Union, in such a way of setting a structure for them to follow.

The plan’s four main parts were dissected and were widely applied to the Union’s future plans. One case of this is the blockade of the South on April 19, 1861. Regardless of Lincoln being skeptical on the possible success rate of the Scott’s plan, he called for a blockade of the South on April 19, 1861, six days after the fall of Fort Sumter. The blockade, although it was thought to be an impossible task against 3,000 miles of highly irregular coastline, was an unparalleled success. Within the first six months the blockade was extremely successful, and nearly impenetrable within the first two years.

This blockade was the cause of the increase in the price of cotton and the scarcity of manufactured goods in the South by the end of the war, which contributed to the South's defeat. Not only was it the most successful naval blockade to date, it was the first one carried out exclusively by the use of a national navy, without employing privateers, as well. Another case of the Anaconda Plan’s dissection and influence is the Union’s capture of Tennessee and, in turn, the Tennessee River Valley.

As stated in General Winfield Scott’s original proposal of the Anaconda Plan, capturing the Tennessee River Valley would cut the South in half and weaken it. Since Tennessee was home to the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, Nashville, Tennessee was served by five railroads, and was home to the South's second largest

ironworks, it was an ideal point for marshalling and distributing resources for the South. Therefore, as soon as Tennessee voted for secession, the Confederacy began to stockpile weapons and supplies at Nashville, making it the center of distribution and manufacture for their war goods.

Here the Henry and Donelson Forts were built on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers to protect this important region. Due to the key role of this region for the Confederates, if it were to be taken over by the Union, it would put them at an extreme disadvantage and, hopefully, lead to their demise. So after Grant's taking of the garrison at Fort Donelson on February 16, 1862, Southern theater commander Albert Sidney Johnston knew he could no longer hold Nashville and withdrew. The supply depot would remain in Union hands until the end of the war.

The loss of Tennessee in general, and Nashville in particular, dealt a crippling blow to the Confederate cause. Furthermore, if it is true that General Robert E. Lee traveled to Pennsylvania for supplies in the Gettysburg Campaign, then he would have never needed do so it the Tennessee Valley were to have remained in Confederate hands, and thus the Battle of Gettysburg, what many have called the "turning point" in the war, would never have happened. The Anaconda Plan was an original failure, as it was never given the support it required.

In the end, the framework of the plan helped to bring an end to the Civil War. Although it was never technically adopted, its influence on future Union plans and war techniques is what made it so important and

successful. Its main idea of the southern blockade was widely adopted and became incorporated in most future Union plans. Therefore it was indeed a key military strategy during the American Civil War that, in theory, would have had the most success with the least amount of bloodshed.