The Anaconda Plan

At the beginning of the war the Union thought it would be an easy, quick war. The Union leaders at this time had no actual plan for the war. General Scott saw this and came up with the Anaconda plan. Scott considered the war a strategy game, and would attack and penetrate the enemy 's forces without destroying all of their troops; focusing mainly on victory. At the beginning of the war Scott, unlike others, thought that the war would be over in more than two years. The war ended in four years. The term Anaconda plan came from Northern press trying to explain Scotts plan. Many people thought that Scotts plan was too passive and difficult. The Union’s effort in the civil war increased greatly on April 19, 1861. At this point Abraham Lincoln created a naval blockade, a system of ships that stops all imports and exports, on the Confederate coastline. This blockade stretched from the Rio Grande to the Chesapeake Bay. At this time Lincoln’s argument was that the Confederacy had no right to secede. Creating this blockade allowed the National warships to attack privateers. Privateers are privately owned and run warships. These ships were used to take the Union’s trade ships. Getting rid of the privateers meant that the Union could transport goods easier. Scott 's anaconda plan needed the Union’s army and navy to surround the Confederacy. After encompassing the Confederacy the army and navy would tighten in, and effectively strangle the South. This contained two

ship the cotton but this meant that the South had to pay the North to

For example, farming was the main source of income for the Confederate states. The main southern chief crop which came to be known as King Cotton, accounted for 57% of all U.S. exports (“Civil War”). However, in order to produce these large amounts of cotton, the southern Confederate states depended heavily on slave labor. Since cotton production began to dominate and fuel the southern economy, the South felt that they did not need to industrialize like their northern neighbors did. This caused the South to manufacture very little goods and caused them to purchase manufactured goods from the industrialized North or to purchase imported goods from overseas.

on agriculture and slavery, making it much harder for the South to industrialize. Since the North was not fighting on their own soil, this meant that they could protect their own industrial and transportation resources. This was an extreme disadvantage due to the South not being able to produce the items needed to fight for the war. The North also contributed to this by building a blockade, via naval ships, that prevented trade with Europe

Lincoln's main goal was to reunite the Union after the North had won and demolished most of the South. Lincoln wanted to reunite the North and South but the South didn't want to join a slave free north. Lincoln came up with the 10 percent plan which required 10 percent of the state’s population to vote to be loyal to the North and then that state would have to create a new government. The southern states combated this plan with the Wade-Davis Bill which stated that reconstruction would be handed over to congress and the Southern States

President Lincoln was thinking of taking a risky step to seal victory. At this point in time he came to the realization that he needed to move in a different direction. The strategic goal to restore the Union was not a good enough reason to keep the Northern states interested and behind the war.

The Union blockade did not take full effect for many months, allowing the Southerners time to export their cotton harvest, and reap the financial benefits. Alexander Stephens had a plan at the start of the war that he estimated would net around $800M for the Confederacy, providing a sound financial base for the war effort. Although somewhat optimistic, and affected by practical difficulties, it is fair to say that the cotton crop would have been far better exported than stockpiled or burnt. Secondly, the Confederate government displayed an unwillingness to tax her citizens, preferring instead to print money, and suffer the rampant inflation that resulted. The Union financed its war effort mainly from taxation and bonds, while 60% of Southern funds came from unbacked paper money. The problems associated with this are clear to see: prices rose 100-fold over the four years of war, wiping out southerners' savings, and devastating the economy. The government's reaction to this, the third mistake, was to impress public goods for military use. However, rather than curbing inflation, this merely acted as a disincentive to supply, making essential items increasingly scarce. This, coupled with the poor infrastructure and parochialism of some State governors, meant that the army went hungry in a nation with the capacity to produce plenty of food. Finally, it is argued that the Confederate government should have done more to improve infrastructure and

     The South’s dominating strategy in winning the civil war was attrition. They believed they could wear down the political will of the North if they held out long enough to make the Northerners tired and question value of the means to achieve the ends. Military stalemates, guerilla war tactics and inconclusive battles would help the South achieve this goal. “Confederate armies did not have to invade and conquer the North: they needed only to hold out long enough to force the North to the conclusion that the price of conquering the South and annihilating its armies was too high, as Britain had concluded in 1781 and as the United States concluded…” (Why Did the Confederacy Lose?, pg 117)The South really enjoyed McClellan’s performance in the Southern theatre with his tendency to retreat when he could have won. This was another helpful hand the South would need to cause attrition. In response, Lincoln knew he had to do two things to prevent attrition and win the war more quickly. He needed to fire McClellan, and shift the theme of the war in the view of the North so that it would not lose its thunder. He did this by issuing the Emancipation Proclamation and converting the war for unionism into the war for morality. The

The Confederacy had hardly any naval strength, which was critical. If the Confederates had had a large navy, they might have been able to break the Union blockade. Their clients for cotton did not come to their aid either; despite some talk of intervention in the war, no action was taken by Britain or France (McPherson 384). The “allies” of the Confederacy simply did not want the trials, costs, and casualties of a war on their hands because of another country’s civil war. Such an action could potentially spark another war, something that Britain and France simply figured that the Confederacy was not worth.

On March 5, 1861, William Henry Seward was appointed Secretary of State by Abraham Lincoln. Seward convinced President Lincoln to establish a blockade around the major Southern seaports. The blockade was put into effect shortly after the attack on Fort Sumter. On April 19, 1861, Lincoln issued a proclamation for a Union blockade to surround South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. Later on April 27, Lincoln extended the blockade to include the states of North Carolina and Virginia. The blockade’s purpose was to stop the flow of trade goods, weapons, and supplies between the southern states and other nations. This war tactic placed an enormous amount of pressure on the Confederate states. Since the Union blockade “prevented the importation of supplies in proportion to the demand” there was an increase of “prices placed upon goods of domestic manufacture”. Southern states were denied revenue since the blockade was stopping the exportation of cotton to European countries. The prices of goods in the Confederacy was already high in order to finance the war and to accommodate the influx of refugees pouring into Richmond. The increase in prices went hand in hand with the growing scarcity of food supplies. Since the beginning of the Civil War, Richmond was heavily taxed. Many of the citizens of Richmond tried to help assist the refugees, but the decrease of business resulted in a decrease in income. For example, coffee was considered as a

The growing and sale of cotton affected both the start of the war as well as the actual war itself. Confederates possessed most of the cotton and tried to use it to their advantage. For example, the Confederates kept all of the cotton to themselves, however the Union army blocked their ports and made it impossible for Georgia to export their cotton and import goods. On May 9, 1865, the war was over, the Union prevailing. With the slaves emancipated, farmers had no one to do labor on their cotton fields. Because of this, Georgia’s economy dramatically worsened

Economically the Union was very strong and greatly outweighed the South. President Lincoln, as the war had begun, quickly declared a blockade, as described earlier, against the main Confederate ports. This was supposed to be under an international treaty, that hadn’t been signed yet, which had created the controversial political issues for Lincoln. Fortunate enough for the Union, when war broke out the United States Navy was small like it’s army, and its ships were scattered around the oceans. Of the American ships that were in surrounding waters, ten were partially destroyed or destroyed to prevent them from going to the Confederates when Virginia seceded. If they did this would have taken the Norfolk naval base with it.

President Lincoln proclaimed a blockade of all confederate ports in an effort to cut confederate trade with the world. Also the blockade became increasingly effective as the war dragged on, Union vessels the South used to smuggle goods past the blockade, usually at night. By using blockade runners, the south could ship at least some of its cotton to Europe in exchange for shoes, rifles, and other

Both the Union and the Confederacy had good military leaders who used and/or invented promising war tactics. The North used a strategy known as the Anaconda Plan. This is where the Union Forces would surround the Confederacy, cut its trade, divide it into two at the Mississippi River, and squeeze it to death. At first the Anaconda Plan was ridiculed, because both sides were originally stuck on old fashion tactics of using mass troops to attack a certain point. When both sides found the new technology in weaponry, made this old strategy suicide the Anaconda Plan was implemented. New technology caused old war tactics to change. Another strategy, I personally like to call “The Jaw” was demonstrated by the brilliant Robert. E. Lee from the South. One war tactic used by Ulysses S. Grant from the North in The Siege of Vicksburg changed the way war was fought from then on. It was called Total War. Total War involves not only war against the opponent’s soldiers but war against their civilians and economic system, in hopes of breaking their moral and in hopes that they give up the thought of winning because victory is just not worth the losses, so defeat may be welcomed. The combination of the ancient technique of total war, which