The Anaconda Plan – A Union Plan for Winning the Civil War

At the beginning of the Civil War, President Lincoln gathered his generals together as he wanted to come up with a plan to get the southern states back in the Union. The supreme commander of the Union Army, General Winfield Scott, devised a strategy that would come to be called the Anaconda Plan. General Scott was from Virginian and thought that a large percentage of Southerners wanted to be part of a united Union therefore he wanted to rebuild the union with a strategic policy that called for as little blood shed as possible. General Scott’s plan called for a complete blockade of the Southern states by the Union Navy.

The Anaconda Plan was named for the South American anaconda; a snake that kills it’s prey by constriction and strangulation. Strangling the South to defeat by cutting of vital supplies from the outside was the basis for Scott's plan. The plan made sense but was ambitious to say the least. General Scott called for the blockading of the more than 3,500 miles of coast line from Virginia to Mexico and up the Mississippi River from New Orleans. Depending on this strategy would require a great deal of patience and would only work over time and with the supplies on hand, the South could hold out for a good while.

President Lincoln knew that adopting such a plan could have world wide diplomatic repercussions that could cause the Union problems. The Anaconda Plan would essentially be giving the Confederacy recognition as a legitimate country as surly no country would not blockade it’s own ports. Lincoln had, so far, been successful in avoiding this by calling the war nothing but the quelling of a rebellion. Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy, was concerned that the Anaconda Plan might give foreign countries the opportunity to extend to the Confederacy full diplomatic relations thus opening the South to foreign trade. This blockade could also cause problems with countries attempting to engage in commerce with The Confederate States of America.

The Union put the Anaconda Plan into action and it was to be a major part of the North’s strategy going forward. Secretary Welles was to assume the responsibility of the putting into place and maintaining the blockade as well as building a fleet of ships necessary to complete the ambitious plan. To do this he took the Union Navy from having only 82 ships in early 1861 to 264 ships by the end of the year. The US Navy would have a fleet of over 600 Naval vessels by the end of the war.

The effect the Anaconda Plan had on the outcome of the Civil War is a matter that has caused much discussion. The blockade enforced on the Confederacy by the Union Navy certainly has to be a consideration in the South’s loss. The James River, as being the entrance to Chesapeake Bay, was equally important to the North and South and the Union’s ability to hold Fort Monroe as a result of the blockade could certainly be seen as a deciding factor in the war.