US History

U.S. History Study Guide

13.6 The Anaconda Plan and Winfield Scott The first military strategy offered to President Lincoln was devised by Union General Winfield Scott. Scott told General George B. McClellan, that he believed a blockade of Southern ports, a large force down the Mississippi Valley, and establishing a line of strong Union positions there would quickly end the war. McClellan called it Scott's "boa-constrictor" plan. The press, recalling McClellan's alleged "boa-constrictor" remark, named the plan after a different snake, the anaconda. The plan was not adopted, but in 1864 a similar plan appeared when Grant's Two-front war, fought in Virginia and Tennessee, pushed the Confederates, while General William T. Sherman's march through Georgia to the sea helped squeeze the South to military death. 13.7 The Beginning of the Civil War The United States only a small professional army standing; the nation’s founders had feared a figure like Napoleon might rise up and use a large army to overthrow the government and make himself a dictator. Many graduates of the U.S. Army’s military academy, West Point, resigned their commissions in order to fight for the South. The Lincoln Administration had to rely on large numbers of volunteers from the states and territories. In Richmond, Virginia, the President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis, faced a similar problem in raising and equipping armies. Neither side expected the war to be long. Volunteers were asked to serve for ninety days. Both sides thought it would be a short war with just one big battle. Both sides were due for a rude awakening. 13.8 Theaters of War Actions in the war were divided into different sections, the East, West, and Trans-Mississippi and Far West but the majority of the war was fought on the East and West; • The Eastern Theater , was, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia and the coast of North Carolina. • The Western Theater began west of the Alleghenies (in West Virginia) and continued to the Mississippi River, but it included the interior of the Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida. • Trans-Mississippi Theater and the Far West were events farther west are

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