Scott’s Anaconda Plan (civil War naval blockade) Proclamation and Management of the Blockade All of these would have to be imported to engage in war once those stolen from federal armories in the South had been used. Only one iron works existed that could produce artillery weapons and armaments, and few manufacturing centers of guns and bullets. Moreover, the South in 1861 has limited facilities to produce the weapons of war. This pattern would have to be modified rapidly to stay in the war. The main role of the railroads before the war was to bring goods to port the opposite direction was rarely used for transporting heavy loads from the ports to the cities or countryside. This increased the cost of transporting goods, raising the prices on agricultural products and stressed the Southern economy. The blockade overburdened roads and the railroad system in the South, which were not designed to transport troops north-south where the troops needed to go but rather west-east towards the ocean. The only way to transport these goods to the consumer were by rail. Southern reliance on cotton sales and the absence of manufacturing centers in the region delineated why the prewar Southern economy was dependent on maritime trade. Food was purchased from Texas and Arkansas or the Midwestern states. The revenue from cotton sales were used to purchase finished products and goods. More specifically, southern economy was dependent on exporting cotton to Great Britain and to the Northeastern states, where clothes and other items were manufactured. Depiction of Civil War Naval blockade (Anaconda Plan) Before the war, the South relied on coastline ports to ship goods and products to other regions and countries. In addition, the South needed markets to sell its cotton and other cash crops. The South grew crops and raw materials, which were then sold to industrial centers and in return, manufactured goods were purchased. The antebellum economy of the South relied on bringing manufactured goods from the Northern states and trading raw agricultural products with foreign countries. By implementing the Anaconda Plan and blockading the southern ocean ports and the Mississippi River (Anaconda Plan), its military would slowly suffocate as supplies dwindled and the country became isolated from its trading partners. The two objectives of the Anaconda Plan were: 1) to prevent war material, manufactured goods, and luxury items from reaching the South to boost their war effort and morale at home and 2) to stop the exportation of raw cotton to foreign manufacturers, which would bring cash to the Confederate economy. Gunboats fighting for control of the Mississippi River along the Mississippi banks Scott expected that a land war would be a long, arduous undertaking despite the general opinion that it would be over in weeks. Scott devised a plan for a naval blockade of the ports of the Confederate Atlantic shoreline, an invasion and occupation down the Mississippi River, and the consequent strangulation of the South by combined Union land and naval forces (Anaconda Plan). Since the CSA trading partners were overseas and there were no land connections, it’s economy depended on open rivers and seas. He recognized that the seceded states depended on bringing military and consumer imports in, and trading cotton and agricultural exports out. Winfield Scott reasoned that the vulnerability of a southern nation was its absence of manufacturing, supplies, and weapons production in the region. Winfield Scott reasoned that the Anaconda plan and by depriving the South of foreign trade and the ability to import or manufacture weapons and military supplies, the war could be won with a minimum of battlefield casualties. The purpose of Scott’s plan was to devise an approach to prevent imports and exports, which would squeeze and strangle (like the snake) the Confederacy into submission using a naval blockade. General Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan was designed to defeat the Confederate States of America (CSA) through economic measures rather than a land war. The Anaconda Plan was the strategic plan proposed by General Winfield Scott early in the American Civil War.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |