THE ANACONDA PLAN

Union General Winfield Scott developed the first major Union strategy in the Civil War, the Anaconda Plan. Under the Anaconda Plan, the Union planned to blockade ports in the South while taking control of the land around the Mississippi river, effectively cutting off the south’s supply and distribution lines.

 Read the following excerpt from a letter from General Scott to Union commanding General George McClellan in which Scott describes the Anaconda Plan. On the map below; outline the Mississippi River in blue, make red dots on the ports that were to be blockage or captured, make a purple dot on the Confederate capitol, shade the area that was to be contained by the Anaconda Plan.

1. What waterways and

ports did Scott propose blocking?

2. What was the ultimate goal of Scott’s Anaconda Plan?

3. In what way might Scott’s Anaconda Plan have led to the quick defeat of the Confederacy?

4. What is meant by the metaphor of the ‘anaconda’?