These ideas were rejected by General Scott in favor of the Anaconda Plan. Capture the Confederate Capital of Richmond.Many people however including President Lincoln, Union generals, and most civilians believed all they needed to do was He wanted to raise an army of 80,000 men in Ohio (he was the military commander in Ohio at this time) and send them on an overland campaign through Virginia and capture Richmond. General George McClellan had a different idea and came up with his own plan. Many people did not approve of the anaconda plan seeing it as too passive and slow to implement. General Winfield Scott and Staff Officers General Winfield Scott’s Plan Was Rejected This was a good plan but it was never given the opportunity to be put into action. It would not be a quick victory but given enough time it had a chance of being successful.
Along with the naval blockade the Confederacy would be completely surrounded and cut off. The federal troops along the Mississippi river would be in a strong defensive position which would make it impossible for any Confederate forces to defeat them.Ĭapturing the Mississippi river would cut the Confederacy in half. Troops would secure the Mississippi river down to the Gulf of Mexico which would link up with and keep their lines of communication open with the ongoing naval blockade. Union troops would capture and hold forts and towns all along the Mississippi.Īfter these forts and towns along the Mississippi were captured, reinforcements would be sent to fortify and secure these areas. The second objective of the plan was to transport roughly 60,000 Union troops in 40 steam transports escorted by upwards of 20 steam gunboats down the Mississippi river.
The south would have been slowly deprived of food and supplies by the Union blockade. Theoretically if the plan was implemented at the start of the war the giant battles fought later in the war may never have happened.
#THE ANACONDA PLAN FULL#
The other generals wanted to crush the rebellion quickly and permanently as soon as possible.įor an in-depth look at the tactics of the Civil War a great book is the #ad Atlas of the Civil War: A Complete Guide to the Tactics and Terrain of BattleĬomplacent or not, the plan, if allowed full implementation and support from Northern military commanders would have saved many lives.Ĭreator of the Anaconda Plan General Winfield Scott during the Civil War General Scott’s plan would require patience and time. They wanted to attack the south and defeat them with the Union’s overwhelming military and industrial might. Pretty much all of the Union commanders disliked this plan and referred to it as being too complacent. His problem was convincing fellow Union commanders that this was a good idea. The problem General Scott had with his idea wasn’t the rebels. General Scott’s Anaconda Plan was a very passive way of defeating the Confederacy. It was a humanitarian way of defeating the rebellion as opposed to invading the south with massive numbers of troops, killing, burning and capturing everything in sight. It was important because the strategic plan would have eventually ended the Civil War, ideally with minimal casualties on both sides. The plan was developed by General Winfield Scott at the beginning of the Civil War following the Confederate attack on Fort Sumter on April 12th 1861. The Anaconda Plan drawn in 1861 Who Developed the Anaconda Plan