What was the union strategy to winning the war?

Answer 1

There were two basic strategies, and both were used.

- The first was Gen. Winfield Scott's plan to blockade the South's coast, seize the Mississippi, and strangle the South economically. (General Scott was a Virginian himself but head of the Union Army.) General Scott thought this was prudent because the Union did not have a large standing army ready to fight, and the terrain of the Confederate States was vast. Meantime, the Federals had a big navy while the Confederates had almost no navy.

The newspapers laughed at this and called it the "Anaconda" plan because sounded like a snake coiling around its prey and suffocating it to death! But it was a very sensible plan from our wisest and most experienced officer. And whenever the North used it, it worked.

- The second strategy was to use brute force and superior numbers to deliver a knockout blow to Richmond and other key cities of the South. This was what Lincoln, Stanton, Seward, and the Radical Republicans hoped for, because they imagined they would have the war over in six months or maybe a year. These people were not military strategists. They didn't understand that the South had a defensive advantage, and the war was not going to be over in one year. Persistent brute-force attacks by Grant, Sherman, and Sheridan eventually destroyed the morale and fighting ability of the South, but it took four years, not one.

EXTRA FOR EXPERTS! The 'brute force' plan began in late 1861 when Lincoln made George McClellan General-in-Chief of the Army and Commander of the Army of the Potomac. Almost overnight, McClellan built up and trained a massive army of citizen-soldier recruits, an army that could defeat the Southern forces by sheer numbers and firepower. McClellan was extremely popular with his officers and men. They felt he really cared about them. McClellan made sure his men had all the food and equipment and sanitary facilities they needed, and he let them know he wouldn't send them into ill-planned battles where they would be killed and maimed.

He was less popular with Lincoln and the Republicans. They thought McClellan was too slow and cautious and worried too much about people getting hurt. Then the Republicans became really paranoid about McClellan. They were afraid this popular young general would march on Washington and kick out the unpopular Lincoln regime. Another reason those politicians didn't like McClellan and career officers is that they believed officers would have more loyalty to their old West Point buddies from the South than they would to Lincoln and the Republicans. By October 1862 they couldn't stand it any longer and McClellan got fired. Officers who were loyal to General McClellan got arrested and slandered and locked up in prison. Men stopped volunteering for the Union army, so the Republicans decided to start drafting people, which was very unpopular.