What were the military strategies of the north and south at the outset of the civil war?

Answer 1

The North's military strategy in the Civil war was to engage in total war. Total war involves complete destruction of the opposing force and their resources. The South's military strategy was to prolong the war making it costly to the North in hopes them eventually stopping it.

Answer 2

There was really only one Grand Strategy. It was refined by some commanders, ignored by some, and added to by others, but the overall strategy was known as the Anaconda Plan. General Winfield Scott, architect of the Vera Cruz Campaign in the Mexican War, formulated it in the first days of the war. The main features consisted of blockading the southern ports and sending an overland expedition down the Mississippi Valley to control the inland river traffic. McClellan ignored it to concentrate on capturing Richmond. Grant used a slightly less direct approach to capturing the Mississippi, but once Vicksburg fell, the main elements of the Anaconda Plan were in place. Sherman further divided the South by his March to the Sea, adding the element of Total War to further deprive the South of its ability to wage war by creating, in essence, an inland embargo by destroying southern infrastructure.

Answer 3

Unions Millitary Strategy:

After the fall of Fort Sumter, President Lincoln ordered a naval blockade of the seceded states. The Blockade was part of General Winfield Scotts (a hero of the Mexican War and commander of all U.S troops in 1861) strategy. He wanted to gain control over the Mississippi River by using the blockade and gunboats. His goal was to cutt the Confederacy in two and he hoped to seek peace and restore the nation without a bloody war. Northern newspapers did not support his plan and called it the "Anaconda Plan". ( after a snake that coils around its victims and crushes them to death)

Confederate Millitary Strategy:

Their strategy was called war of attrition which means that one side inflicts continuous losses on the enemy in order to wear down its stregth. They hoped that their Forces would be that strong that the Union would give up.

Answer 4

The Union strategy under Gen. U.S. Grant was one of attrition. The Union Navy blockaded every Confederate port and starved the South for military resources; the Northern Army under Gen William T. Sherman decimated the Southern farms, causing severe food shortages amongst both the South's military and civilians.

The Confederate strategy was to bleed the Union armies and hope the North would tire of a war based on an opposition to slavery while simultaniously hoping their cotton exports to England were sufficiently important to convince the English to support them with either arms or money.

Answer 5

The Union strategy under Gen U.S. Grant was one of attrition. With the Union Navy blockading every Confederate port, the goal was to starve the South of munitions, military weapons, and raw materials, while Gen William Tecumseh Sherman decimated the southern farms.

The Confederate strategy was to try to hold off the Union forces while using their cotton exports to England as a reason why the UK would support them militarily and politically, thereby perhaps making the Union wonder if a war against the UK was in the Union's national interests.