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The Anaconda was the joke-name given to the original war-plan by the Union's General-in-Chief Winfield Scott, because it looked like slow strangulation, when most officers and politicians were expecting the war to be all over after a quick, virtually bloodless march on Richmond.

The plan depended on a Naval blockade to starve the South, then a drive down the Mississippi, to divide the Confederacy in two (isolating all enemy troops to the west of the river), and then sending in the armies to defeat the weakened foe.

Congress rejected the plan, and Scott soon retired through old age. But under the test of an increasingly long war, the Union eventually saw the sense of this, and it brought victory.

It remains an interesting case of a highly distinguished soldier, able to provide valuable insights, but too old to be in command, and no longer vigorous enough to fight his plan through sceptical ministers.

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12y ago

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