The Anaconda Strategy

Upon the election of Abraham Lincoln, in November of 1860 slave owners felt vulnerable. The Confederate States felt that Lincoln was a threat to slavery and something must be done. Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Texas would all secede from the Union. They were later joined by Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina when the war began. They were determined to protect their way of life.
General Winfield Scott would develop a plan called the Anaconda Strategy. It was an attempt to end the Confederate Rebellion without violence. Scott did not want there to be any casualties if it could be prevented. The plan was to block the Southern salt water ports. Also to stop all commerce along

the Mississippi river. This would weapons from being imported and cotton from being exported. Scott’s belief was that the South would feel so constricted, that they would return to the Union before a war broke out. Though this plan was effective, it was viewed as too time consuming.
The Anaconda Strategy was not very popular among the other military officers, because of its passiveness. People wanted the rebellion to be quickly squashed. Battle was thought to end the rebellion faster. Other military officers felt that the Anaconda Strategy would have been time wasted. The plan would soon things would change, and the plan would be revamped.
Ulysses S Grant may have been the most valuable Union General in the Civil War. In 1864 Grant saw that a blockade alone was not effective enough to win the war. He would implement a new strategy of using the blockade as well as battle. He would block the southern coast keeping cotton and other goods from being exported. This would also keep anything from being imported. While using the Anaconda plan, he also attacked the South from the north.
After four long years the war finally ended in 1865. The brutal war took 620,000 Union and Confederate lives. Upon the end of the war, slaves were set free. Wartime manufacturing caused an increase in industrialization in the south. This made it easier for industry to take hold after the loss of slave labor. The North had finally won the freedom of the slaves.