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Anaconda Plan Essay

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The Anaconda Plan was the grand plan that the Union utilized during the Civil War. General Winfield Scott conceived the plan after the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter, on April 12, 1861. However, Scott was never able to carry out the plan, as he went into retirement. The Anaconda Plan got its name from the generals that criticized the plan. The generals criticized the plan for taking measures that were too passive, and compared it to an anaconda suffocating its victim. It consisted of three different parts. The first phase of the plan was to blockade ports that belonged to the South. The second part was to gain control of the Mississippi River. The third and last step was to capture Richmond, Virginia, thus ending the Civil War. The first …show more content…

Back then, war was all about capturing the enemy’s capital. If you did so, then you won the war. So, the Union made it one of their goals to capture the Confederate capital, Richmond. The Army of the Potomac would undergo this effort, and was led by George B. McClellan at first. After several months of training the army, McClellan began the Peninsular Campaign. In this operation, McClellan moved his troops to a peninsula between the York and James Rivers. After passing up on many opportunities, McClellan met the Confederates in a series of confrontations that became known as the Seven Days’ Battles. The Confederates, led by Robert E. Lee, pushed McClellan’s troops back. The Peninsular Campaign was a failure, and McClellan was removed. Various generals would fill his shoes, but the role would eventually come to Ulysses S. Grant. In May 1864, Grant began the Overland Campaign. The campaign began with two indecisive battles at The Wilderness and Spotsylvania Courthouse, and one Confederate victory at Cold Harbor. Grant decided to move his troops south of Richmond, at Petersburg. There, he began a nine-month siege. Finally, on April 2, 1865, the weakened Confederate forces lost Petersburg. On that same day, Grant also captured the Confederate capital of Richmond. This led to Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, and the end of the Civil War. So, the Union completed each step in the Anaconda Plan, and won

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The total war strategy that was used by the North to defeat the south was known as the Anaconda Plan, by General Scott. The total war was an agenda that goes beyond pitched battles between armies, it attacks a whole national infrastructure, including towns, and villages. It started with a complete blockade of the Confederate coast, with the objective of preventing the export of cotton, and the import of munitions and other supplies. It was closed out by forces waging a burnt earth policy towards the south, destroying railroads, burning towns and crops in an attempt to cripple the south economically.

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Chanmi Oh Mr. Villeneuve APUSH p. 3 Seven Days Battle After the Battle of Bull Run, Union General George B. McClellan insisted that his men, the Union Army of the Potomac, be well trained before being returning to fight. By April 1862, Lincoln pressed McClellan to launch a campaign for the siege of the Confederate capital of Richmond. The campaign would be known as the Peninsular Campaign, where McClellan’s failure to seize Richmond would lead to the Seven Days battles.

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In the battle of shiloh Grant was able to fight off the confederate soldiers and hold them off while getting reinforcements and eventually being able to win the battle. On the first day of “Bloody Shiloh,” Grant saved his army, and on the second day he counterattacked and drove the enemy forces from the battlefield and back toward Corinth. General Grant Despite its disastrous start, Shiloh was a major victory for Grant. Grant led his army from the front and would stick to his plan of attack, and was able to adapt to the attacks of the Confederates.

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From June 26 to July 2, 1862 the Seven Days Battle was an attack by General Robert E. Lee of the Confederate Army that comprised of six different battles. McClellan 's army had the intent of capturing Richmond, Virginia, but Lee lunched a counter attack and drove McClellan’s army back to the sea. This ended the Peninsula Campaign. With a Confederate Victory, this increased morale in the South, because of the string of victories Lee had had. Lee would soon be victorious at battles following seven days battle, such as Fredericksburg.

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