The Plan Of The Anaconda Plan

Confederates quickly shed their American identity and adopted a new Confederate nationalism. Confederate nationalism was based on several ideals, foremost among these being slavery. This mindset brought problems into the infrastructure of the new government. Since the Confederacy was newly founded, it had little funds to operate as a country so the rich southerners used their money to fund it with controlling interest. Since the south lacked industry, it heavy relied on the plantations as the main income for the country’s economy. They had to rely on the export of resources from the plantations to acquire funds, but since production relied on a lot of conditions it was not a stable source of income like the industrialized north. Since the government was founded on slavery there were a lot of countries that disagreed with the slave trade so the confederacy did not gain many allies that would help them in the shirt time that they were in control. With the Union government having contracts and business with most of the countries in this time, when Lincoln declared his inaugural address, that the secession was legally

It can be said that the South began the Civil War from a winning position. They had declared their independence, formed their own country and government, and they needed only to keep what they already had. But this was a monumental task as the government was required to protect every inch of land within the Confederacy. As a new country, the Confederacy needed to demonstrate the ability to defend its own territory from external threat. Without this ability, the Confederacy could never receive the international recognition and support it needed to survive. Aside from this reason, the South also needed to protect the institution of slavery from outside interference. If the Northern armies took control of a particular Southern area, the Confederates felt that they would free all the slaves, thus destroying the entire structure of society and its economic value. Because of this, Jefferson Davis was forced to devise a flawed war strategy which attempted to preserve the entire Confederacy at the cost of concentrating his forces.

In 1861, the United States was no longer united and its people were at war, in what is commonly known as the American Civil War. This left President Abraham Lincoln in a tight spot on how to go about dealing with the Southern states that had seceded, the Confederacy, who were now at war with the Northern states, the Union. Lincoln met with his generals to devise a strategy by which the Confederate states could be brought back into the Union. General Winfield Scott, commanding general of the Union army, proposed one plan of battle that he had earlier proposed to Major-General George B. McClellan. His plan came to be known as the Anaconda plan. This plan, although it was never technically adopted, ended up being extremely successful and

The Union blockade did not take full effect for many months, allowing the Southerners time to export their cotton harvest, and reap the financial benefits. Alexander Stephens had a plan at the start of the war that he estimated would net around $800M for the Confederacy, providing a sound financial base for the war effort. Although somewhat optimistic, and affected by practical difficulties, it is fair to say that the cotton crop would have been far better exported than stockpiled or burnt. Secondly, the Confederate government displayed an unwillingness to tax her citizens, preferring instead to print money, and suffer the rampant inflation that resulted. The Union financed its war effort mainly from taxation and bonds, while 60% of Southern funds came from unbacked paper money. The problems associated with this are clear to see: prices rose 100-fold over the four years of war, wiping out southerners' savings, and devastating the economy. The government's reaction to this, the third mistake, was to impress public goods for military use. However, rather than curbing inflation, this merely acted as a disincentive to supply, making essential items increasingly scarce. This, coupled with the poor infrastructure and parochialism of some State governors, meant that the army went hungry in a nation with the capacity to produce plenty of food. Finally, it is argued that the Confederate government should have done more to improve infrastructure and

A blockade can be defined as an effort to cut off supplies, war materials or communication between forces partially or totally. If one side can establish a blockade it would get easier to defeat the other side, because an effective blockade can cause military and economically problems. During the Civil War, Union navy established a blockade of Confederate ports to prevent export, import and war supplies. The author William N. Still, Jr. argues the effectiveness of a blockade during the Civil War. He argues that the blockade was both effective and ineffective. The effectiveness increased through the end of the war. The blockade had little effect in the war. He gives examples about its effectiveness, such as importance of blockade to cause economic problems. On the other hand, there is considerable evidence showing the ineffectiveness of the

The Union and Confederate navies were similar in that each was trying to recruit more sailors, and they were both developing ironclad ships. They were trying to advance the technology of the ships, but both found it difficult to find the manpower to accomplish it. They did differ; however, the North knew the importance of the navy, while the Confederates downplayed it, figuring that it would not be as necessary as ground soldiers. The U.S Navy had a better time of growing in numbers then the Confederate Navy, and they also had the advantage of manpower and the number of ships they owned, while the Confederates lacked skilled workers to form an effective

So, the war had begun, the Confederacy had their army, and everyone prepared for what they believed was going to be a short conflict. Four years later, they realized how

The north was becoming increasingly industrialized while the south was still mainly agricultural. Congress passed a tariff that benefitted the producers of cloth, mostly north, however it shrunk the demand for southern raw cotton. The south were infuriated and looked to Vice President, John C. Calhoun, for support against the "tariff of abomination." Calhoun supported the first tariff, however, if he ever wanted a future political career he needed to rethink his position. Calhoun proposed the idea that the power of states should be greater than the federal. South Carolina then believed they had the right to nullify the tariff. Jackson who did not approve of nullification threatened to send troops in. He also forced Calhoun into resigning his position. Meanwhile, South Carolina threatened to secede the union. Jackson was granted a bill from congress to enact and send troops in, however, Henry Clay revised the tariff before armed confrontation was

South Carolina then threatened to secede from the union. While Jackson was pro-state’s rights he was against secession. Andrew Jackson threatened to send troops to South Carolina to prevent secession. Thankfully, a compromise proposed by Henry Clay in which tariffs will be reduced over the course of 10 years to which South Carolina agrees.

The Southerners still had to feed the slaves, but the slaves were not able to help the war effort. There was a ton of skirmishes and battles, but literally a third of their people were just farming cotton! The Union took advantage of this by blockading all ports around the South. The Confederacy could not ship out cotton, or bring in supplies. Due to this fact, the South’s entire economy was crumbling down! They needed to sell the cotton to bring back weapons and tools, but they did not have access to the ocean. The North had three times the factories, and made their own weapons, whereas the South had to have them brought in from Britain and other european

The Importance of the Blockade Runners in the Civil War Blockade runners enabled the Confederacy to survive for as long as it

After the defeat at Fort Sumter there were some northerners that tried to get Lincoln to let the south go. When deciding weather to take Fort Sumter by bombardment, one of Davis's ideas was a bargain with Washington , maybe purchase, for the peaceful turnover of the fort and other federal holding in the seceded states. Thinking Confederate independence was inescapable, Davis prayed that they would slow down long enough to recognize that they could save millions of dollars and many lives by stopping this. He believed that the honor of the Confederate States of America (CSA) would be reestablished if everyone seen Davis challenge Lincoln successfully. While dealing with all of this he still was ready to take Fort Sumter. Davis just wanted peace and to be left alone. The South was fighting a defensive war, which gave it inherent advantage.

Economically the Union was very strong and greatly outweighed the South. President Lincoln, as the war had begun, quickly declared a blockade, as described earlier, against the main Confederate ports. This was supposed to be under an international treaty, that hadn’t been signed yet, which had created the controversial political issues for Lincoln. Fortunate enough for the Union, when war broke out the United States Navy was small like it’s army, and its ships were scattered around the oceans. Of the American ships that were in surrounding waters, ten were partially destroyed or destroyed to prevent them from going to the Confederates when Virginia seceded. If they did this would have taken the Norfolk naval base with it.

The challenges that the Union and the Confederacy faced during the Civil War were very different. Critical weaknesses that seemed unfit for war, plagued the opposing American forces, and would serve to be a continuous obstacle that would need to be conquered by patriotism of the people, for their opposing views. To allow for both sides to be competitive, the efforts put forth had to mold to the varied needs of the armies by both the civilian population and their militaries. To the people in the south the similarity to the colonists in the Revolutionary War, was assimilated to their separatist cause in the Civil War and would be their drive to compete with the dominating Northern states. This mindset started the Confederacy in the Civil

Both the Union and the Confederacy had good military leaders who used and/or invented promising war tactics. The North used a strategy known as the Anaconda Plan. This is where the Union Forces would surround the Confederacy, cut its trade, divide it into two at the Mississippi River, and squeeze it to death. At first the Anaconda Plan was ridiculed, because both sides were originally stuck on old fashion tactics of using mass troops to attack a certain point. When both sides found the new technology in weaponry, made this old strategy suicide the Anaconda Plan was implemented. New technology caused old war tactics to change. Another strategy, I personally like to call “The Jaw” was demonstrated by the brilliant Robert. E. Lee from the South. One war tactic used by Ulysses S. Grant from the North in The Siege of Vicksburg changed the way war was fought from then on. It was called Total War. Total War involves not only war against the opponent’s soldiers but war against their civilians and economic system, in hopes of breaking their moral and in hopes that they give up the thought of winning because victory is just not worth the losses, so defeat may be welcomed. The combination of the ancient technique of total war, which