The Anaconda Plan

Squeezing the South into Submission

That is not to say that the blockade was perfect; in fact, scholars since have pointed to the seemingly large number of blockade runners who managed to slip past the Union ships. But the relevant data point is not how many ships evaded capture, but how many ships never sailed that, undeterred, otherwise would have. From that point of view, the blockade was an unimpeachable success: blockade runners only accounted for about five percent of the regular incoming and outbound trade that would have otherwise been conducted.

Moreover, these were commercial ventures, unguided by some overarching strategy in Richmond. Not surprisingly, they were disproportionately concerned with the importation of luxury goods, which were much more valuable by volume than commodities but which did little to actually support the Southern war effort. And the South desperately needed commodities, particularly foodstuffs: while the South had an agricultural economy, most of what it grew were cash crops like cotton and tobacco, and it imported great quantities of food from both the northern United States and overseas.

“From the beginning, the blockade reduced food imports into the South,” writes the historian Andrew F. Smith in Starving the South: How the North Won the Civil War. “Coffee, tea, spices, and wine quickly became difficult to acquire. More important losses from a nutritional standpoint were apples and dairy products, such as butter and cheese, which had been imported from New England; citrus fruits, dates, pineapples, and vegetables, which had been imported from Bermuda and the Caribbean Islands became scarce, as did salt … which had been mainly imported from abroad before the war.” With the halt of trade between the two halves of the country via the Mississippi, the South also lost its imports of grain from the Midwest.

The Anaconda plan to plan to win the civil war | News about History

At the beginning of the civil war, President Lincoln put together his generals as he wanted to come up with a plan to get the southern States back at Uni. Commander in Chief General Union army, Winfield Scott, devised a strategy that would come to be called Anaconda plan. General Scott from the Virginian and think that a large percentage of a group of wanted to be part of the United States because he wanted to rebuild the Union with strategic policy referred to as a bit of blood being shed as much as possible. General Scott called for the blockade plan complete the southern States by the Union Navy. Anaconda Plan was called from Anaconda of South America; hose, which kills prey constriction and strangulation. Strangling in the South to overcome cutting vital supply from outside was the basis for the plan’s Scott . The Plan makes sense, but it was demanding at least. General Scott called for by participating with more than 500 miles of coast line from Virginia to Mexico and upstream of the Mississippi River from New Orleans. According to this strategy would require immense patience and will work only with time and with supplies from the parties, the South could hold good for a while. President Lincoln knew that adopting such a plan could have repercussions in wide diplomatic world that could cause problems for the Union. Anaconda Plan would essentially acknowledging the recognition as a legitimate country Confederacy: as a surly no country would be blockade their own ports. Lincoln was so far successful in avoiding this by calling the war nothing but quelling the insurgency. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, was concerned that the Anaconda Plan may allow foreign countries to allow extensions to the Confederacy: full diplomatic relations, thus opening the South to foreign trade. This lockout can also cause problems with countries attempting to engage in a trade with the Confederate States of America. The Union put the Anaconda Plan in action and it was like a large part of the Northern strategy going forward. Secretary Welles was the responsibility of the commissioning and maintain the blockade, as well as to build a fleet of ships is needed to the ambitious plan. To do this, he took the Union Navy of having only 82 ships in early 1861 to 264 ships by the end of the year. The u.s. Navy would have a fleet of more than 600 naval vessels at the end of the war. Anaconda Plan had the effect on the outcome of war is a matter that has caused much discussion. Blockade enforced by the Union Navy at the Confederacy is likely to be a review in Sørs loss. James River, which is the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay, it was equally important to the North and South, and the Union’s ability to keep Fort Monroe as a result of the blockade could certainly be seen as a crucial factor in the war.

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