Battle of Gettysburg

The Battle of Shiloh You may be thinking of Chickamauga but that battle actually occured in Georgia, even though it is close to Chatanooga, TN, where the Union army retreated.

Franklin Estimated Casualties: 8,587 total (US 2,326; CS 6,261)

Shiloh Estimated Casualties: 23,746 total (US 13,047; CS 10,699) Chickamauga, GA Estimated Casualties: 34,624 total (US 16,170; CS 18,454) Link with Battles by State: http://www.nps.gov/history/hps/abpp/battles/bystate.htm

- The next step in the Anaconda Plan was the ground operation. The Union would send two Armies into the Confederacy. One army would begin in the western part of the Union. This would be the Western Army of the Union. It would strike south from Ohio into Kentucky..which was a border state and considered neutral in the conflict. Once the western army secured Kentucky it would move south into Tennessee, then move west to begin it's operation to secure th major cities along the Mississippi. It would work in tandem with the Union Navy moving up the Mississippi to secure the river and cut the Confederacy in two. This would also provide the Union with a valuable waterway with which it could send supplies deep into the south in order to supply its troops there. During the early years of the war General Ulysses S. Grant would become one of the Union's most valuable assests as he was able to defeat Confederate forces at several major battles including Fort Donelson, the Bettle of Shiloh... one of the bloodiest battles of the war, and most importantly the Battle for the city of Vicksburg Mississippi, which was the final Confederate stronghold along the Mississippi. Vicksburg finally fell in July of 1863, the same week that the Union forces won a major victory at the Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. Grant would receive help in his effort along the way from his good friend General William Tecumseh Sherman. Sherman would later become famous for his battle to take the city of Atlanta, and his subsequent March to the Sea.

- The second Union Army to attack the Confederacy at the same time the western forces moved out was the eastern Army of the Potomac. This army would move south into Virginia with it's main goal being to secure the Confederate capital of Richmond Viginia. The Army of the Potomac would not have as easy a time in battle as the western forces, and faced many defeats along the way in its effort to defeat the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia. The Army of Northern Virginia was initially led by General Joseph Johnston and General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beuregard. However, Johnston was wounded in 1862, and General Robert E. Lee was sent to replace him as overall commander of Confederate forces in the east. It was said by Johnston that the shot that wounded him was the best thing that ever happened to the Confederacy. He was referring to the fact that his replacement, Robert E. Lee was the greatest General operating in the field on either side during the war. Lee was initially offered commnd of all Union forces prior to the start of the war, but once Virginia(Lee's home state) seceeded from the Union, Lee's loyalties went to the south. He said that he could never draw his sword against his home... meaning Virginia. We have to remember here that one of the causes of the Civil War was the issue of state's rights. You see, most people in th south felt that the individual state governments should hold more power than the main federal government. This meant that they felt that if the federal government passed a law that certain states did not agree with, that those states had the right not to follow that law. This became very clear when the federal government began to pass certain tariffs, or taxes on the southern states' export of cotton to Europe. The southern states did not believe these tariffs were fair, so they felt that they did not have to pay them. This was a major cause for the secession of some states, and the subsequent war that followed...alright, back to the answer...

Although the Union Army of the Potomac lost many battles in the east to Lee and his army, they did manage to win some key battles in order to assure that none of the European powers would intervene in the war on the side of the Confederacy. The Battle of Gettysburg in July 1863 was a major victory for the Union, and probably the most important victory of the war. This was Lee's second attempt to invade the north and gain a major victory... the first was in 1862 when he invaded Maryland and was defeated at Antietam or Sharpsburg as some refer to it... Lee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis felt that if the Confederate army could gain a major victory in the north, that it would prove to the European powers that the Confederacy was a viable nation, and that they would intervene on their behalf and end the war. Another reason the south wanted a major victory in the north was that they felt it would cause many people in the north to become tired of all the bloodshed and petition President Lincoln to end the war and recognize southern independence. Gettysburg effectively ended this possibility. It actually had the opposite effect. Northerners rallied around the cause, and Lee lost thousands of soldiers that he was unable to replace.

- In 1864, President Lincoln brought General Grant east and gave him command of all Union armies. He was promoted to Lieutenant General of the Armies, a rank only previously held by George Washington. Under Grant's leadership, the Army of the Potomac was able to march south and wear down Lee's forces. By late 1864 the Union army had the Army of Northern Viginia pinned down on the outskirts of Richmond. So, by this time in the war, the Union Naval blockade was working... the Union controlled the Mississippi.... the city of Atlanta had fallen to General Sherman, and his march to the sea was underway. Sherman reached Savannah Georgia by Christmas of 1864. Sherman then turned north towards Charleston South Carolina, the birthplace for the Confederacy and secession. Sherman's goal was to move north and join up with Grant's army in order to destroy Lee's Army once and for all. The western Confederate Army by this point was no longer a viable fighting force. Sherman never got his chance to join Grant. In April 1865 Grant had chased Lee out of his trenches around Richmond and finally caught up with him at the small town of Appomattox Court House. Lee knew that he was defeated. In order to avoid any further unnecessary bloodshed, Lee sent a message through the lines to Grant offering surrender.... note that Grant had sent a message to Lee the night before stating that he would accept a surrender if Lee was so inclined, and that any further bloodshed was unnecessary and would be on Lee's hands. Lee and Grant met at the home of Wilmer Mclean and worked out surrender terms. Grant had met with President Lincoln a few days earlier, and Lincoln told Grant to be lenient in his terms in order to begin the re-unification of the nation. Grant did just that. He took no prisoners. He issued paroles and allowed all of Lee's soldiers to return home once they turned in their arms and signed an allegiance to the Union. He also allowed the southerners to keep their horses as it was planting season in the south and they would need them. He allowed the officers to keep their sidearms and swords. This was the beginning of healing the wounds of the nation.

- Now we see how the Anaconda Plan did work. The naval blockade was a success...aside from some blockade runners who were able to smuggle in small amounts of supplies... The western Union forces were able to secure major southern cities along the Mississippi and inland in order to cut the Confederacy in half and control the western southern states. Finally, the Army of the Potomac, although battered and worn, was able to defeat General Lee and his eastern armies in order to control the Confederate capital and the major cities of the east. The north was successfully able to strangle the south into submission. Thus, the Anaconda Plan....

- I really hope that this answer was helpful in providing a better understanding of how the Union's Anaconda Plan was put into action and how it was able to help defeat the southern Confederacy.