Indeed, the South's second largest ironworks was in Clarksville, Tennessee, on the Kentucky border, near a bend in the Cumberland River. Nashville, Tennessee was served by 5 railroads during the war, and the state of Tennessee was home to the Cumberland and Tennessee Rivers, making it an ideal point for marshalling and distributing resources.
The Tennessee River Valley was also very important to the South. Grant's successful Vicksburg campaign effectively cemented Union control of the Mississippi River, and began the slow death knell for the Confederacy. Although the Eastern Theater was closer to the major centers of population and therefore often drew more attention, the Mississippi River represented a major strategic resource that would, if captured by the North, allow for the movement of men and material into the very heart of the South. 
Jefferson Davis called Vicksburg the "vital point" of the Confederacy.
Control of the Mississippi River would prove decisive in the Civil War as well Pres. It was the most successful naval blockade to date, and the first one carried out exclusively by the use of a national navy, without employing privateers. The blockade accounted for the vast increase in the price of cotton abroad and the extreme scarcity of manufactured goods in the South by the end of the war, contributing to the Confederacy's defeat. The blockade itself, thought to be an impossible task against 3000 miles of highly irregular coastline, was an unparalleled success within the first 6 months, and nearly impregnable within the first 2 years. Lincoln called for a blockade of the South on April 19th, 1861, 6 days after the fall of Fort Sumter. Nonetheless, the particulars of the Plan were all carried through, the first 3 proving indeed to be the most decisive factors of the war: The plan as originally conceived by Scott also advised passivity, in that it suggested that once the Southern states were effectively cut off from their resources, the Union should wait for capitulation. 
Capture Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederate States of America.Īlthough the plan was devised early in the war, it was derided by several newspapers and was reluctantly adopted by the Union's leaders.Divide the South by capturing the Tennessee River Valley and marching through Georgia to the coast.Divide the South by controlling the Mississippi River to cut the South off from the west.
Blockade the coast of the South to prevent the export of cotton, tobacco, and other cash crops from the South and to keep them from importing much needed war supplies. The plan was adopted in 1862, involving 4 main parts: The Anaconda Plan was drawn up to end the Civil War in favor of the Union. It was his belief that sympathy for secession was not as strong as it appeared and that isolation and pressure would make the "fire-eaters" back down and allow calmer heads to take control.īut the war-fevered nation wanted combat, not armed diplomacy, and the passive features of Scott's plan were ridiculed as a proposal "to squeeze the South to military death." The press, recalling McClellan's alleged "boa-constrictor" remark, named the plan after a different constricting snake, the anaconda. Then, he believed, Union troops should stop, waiting for Southern Union sympathizers to turn on their Confederate governors and compel them to surrender. Scott then presented it to the president, in greater detail, proposing that 60,000 troops move down the Mississippi with gunboats until they had secured the river from Cairo, Ill., to the Gulf, which, in concert with an effective blockade, would seal off the South. McClellan, that he believed an effective "Blockade" of Southern ports, a strong thrust down the Mississippi Valley with a large force, and the establishment of a line of strong Federal positions there would isolate the disorganized Confederate nation "and bring it to terms."Ĭontemporary sources said McClellan called it Scott's "boa-constrictor" plan. About May 3rd, Scott told his protégé, Maj.
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