How Did The Military Strategies Used in the Civil War, Impact the North and South

Origional Plan

The Union army was under the command of General George McClellan after General Scott retired at the end of 1861. In it's original form, the Anaconda plan was a good idea, but it would not have been successful in practice. As the rebellion began, the Union navy established a blockade, but it was not strong enough at the start of the war to adequately blockade the entire south. The Union would not have been able to defeat the rebellion with a naval blockade alone, even if they controlled the entire Mississippi River. While the Union tried to starve them into submission, Confederate leaders were not going to stand by and do nothing.

Impact

The Impact

As quickly and decisively as possible, the Union sought to end the war. The tactics that were eventually used were reminiscent of Scott’s plan yet they also involved horrific combat. After a long siege General Ulysses S. Grant captured the city of Vicksburg on July 4th 1863 giving the Union control of the Mississippi river and effectively cutting the Confederacy in two. General William Tecumseh Sherman led his army on a rampage through the south during his march to the sea in 1864 depriving the south of vital food and materials as he and his men destroyed or captured anything that stood in their way. Among them was the burning of Atlanta in 1864. The combination of these victories and the increasing strength of the Union blockade in the north eventually forced the Confederates to go on the defensive. They were defeated and the rebellion crushed as a result. By implementing General Scott's plan for a more peaceful solution to the rebellion, General Grant, General Sherman, and the other Union commanders accomplished virtually the same things as the Anaconda plan proposed. The main difference being brutal combat and many casualties on both sides.

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Pt. 1

The Confederate States of America recognized from the outset of the warfare that they'd disadvantages in terms of population and industrial output. Their strategy was to require advantage of their compact geography, with internal lines of communication, their military heritage (Southerners had been disproportionately the officers of the u. s. Army), and their greater enthusiasm for his or her cause to affect the Union will to wage war. They also believed the Britain, with its heavy dependence on Southern cotton to provide its mills, would be at the worst neutral with a bias in their favor, and that they dreamed of direct European assistance.

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Pt.2

Their specific strategies included Privateering within the Atlantic to harass New England merchants with ships just like the Alabamaand putting pressure on Washington DC, whose city limits fronted on the Confederate state of Virginia. The South believed that since they didn't will occupy and hold territorial dominion, they might be fighting principally in defense of their homeland and their soldiers would consequently have greater morale and stronger commitment to the cause.

Impact

America wasn't inclined to appear at blacks as equals, and their voting rights within the North were limited. Abolitionism was a minority view even within the North, and plenty of of those who supported the Union cause during the warfare wouldn't have deprived the South of its "peculiar institution" in peace. None of this mattered much after South Carolina and thus the opposite core secessionists took action. Once Southern states began to secede, the prospects for folks that remained began to grow dim because the likelihood of Republican domination of the central increased. In the end, the Southern strategy was to wish to persuade the Union did, and this proved to be an illusion.