The Anaconda Plan (Blockade)
In 1861, the Anaconda plan was created by Winfield Scott after the Battle of Bull Run to stop the Confederacy and make them surrender to the Union. The plan was named after the snake of the same name, and how it tried trapping in the South economically and in transportation. The first part of the plan was to stop trade in C.S.A. ports by sending Union navy ships to blockade any foreign traders. Doing this, they would stop the flow of money and trade for the South's cotton to France and Britain. After a year, step two was engaged. The step involved getting the Mississippi River from the South. The attack on the Mississippi River was lead by Admiral David Farragut and his fleet of forty-six ships. Eventually, the South surrendered the river, easily taking it from the Confederacy. This allowed the North to keep the South on their own side. Capturing the Mississippi River was very easy for the Union, due to the city by the river not even fighting back! During all of this, General Grant (Soon to be president in 1869 for eight years) was sent to Illinois to gain more land for the Union in 1862. These attacks got the Union Kentucky and some of Tennessee under their control. That led to General McClellan that same year to try and capture Richmond with 100k men, but failed. The Anaconda Plan overall really helped weaken the Confederacy's power to help the Union win. With trying to land lock their ways to contact other countries to make them lose money was a strategic advantage to make the C.S.A. lose money benefited the Union a lot.
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Step One
Winfield Scott decided to begin his master plan of destroying the Confederacy's economy was put into action. The Union had a course of action to block the South's ports of foreign ships to halt trade between the C.S.A. and Britain. The blockade would cause the Confederacy to lose money, and keeping basic materials out of reach for them and Britain. But, the Confederacy made an attempt to break free of the blockade by asking Britain for assistance. They wanted the British to try and break foreign ships away from Southern ports to continue trade with their allies across the Atlantic. Unfortunately, the British denied the C.S.A.'s request to aid them in their time of need. Now, the C.S.A. could not export goods like cotton to Europe for money. However, the Union was not done yet...
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Step Two
Images of Richmond, Virginia ( http://ushproject2012.blogspot.com/2012_03_01_archive.html ) General McClellan ( http://www.britannica.com/biography/George-B-McClellan ), and the Mississippi River ( http://www.karencarr.com/larger.php?CID=69 )
The second part of the Anaconda Plan was decided to be put into play a year after the first step was introduced. The Union was going to make an even larger blow to the Confederacy economically. This plan was to take over the Mississippi River to send forty six ships down to New Orleans. If the Union succeeded, which was extremely likely, the Confederacy would split away from the Mississippi River. Not surprisingly, the Confederacy surrender as soon as the Union arrived to claim the river, not one shot was fired. While all of that was happening, General McClellan went to go take Richmond, Virginia, but sadly failed, even though the McClellan outnumbered Richmond with a hundred thousand troops. Capturing the Mississippi River for transporting goods across the country would inhibit the South to ship goods to other allies. Surely, this would cause the Confederacy to fall to its knees to us.
Conclusion
Overall, the Anaconda Plan was a very advanced plan for its time. The basics are to keep any products from getting shipped in and out of the country to make any profit towards the Confederacy. This would cause them to likely not be able to afford any weapons and supplies, and to be inhibited to send boats out to Britain for trade. Not to mention Britain couldn't get a supply of cotton from the C.S.A. If the Union didn't execute the plan, we'd most likely have a lower chance of being victorious due to the Confederacy probably having more weapons, or troops. Not to mention, they had very intelligent military leaders on their side to help make more strategic decisions. The first step involved keeping any foreign ships out of the C.S.A. Doing this would decrease the amount of money made by the Confederacy from other countries to decrease. Also, if they got slaves from other countries, it would cause them to have only the ones in America. Step two would make Union soldiers in a large fleet of boats to try and capture the Mississippi from the Confederacy. Luckily though, it was extremely easy to get, since nobody died, and the Confederacy just handed it over. Now, they couldn't use the river to send any supplies to any of the other Southern states. The North could've probably used a lot less ships to try and take one river, since they could've used maybe ten or twenty (They had one large fleet of forty six ships)! Plus, no bullets were shot between the two sides during the taking of the Mississippi. If the Union decided not to use this plan, they would've probably lost the whole Civil War.
Bibliography
http://www.totalgettysburg.com/anaconda-plan.html
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/navy-hub/navy-history/blockade.html
Page 428 of TCI Textbook
http://www.totalgettysburg.com/anaconda-plan.html
http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/navy-hub/navy-history/blockade.html
Page 428 of TCI Textbook