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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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