![]() ![]() The geography of the operations area was daunting. The Anaconda Plan, proposed by General-In-Chief Winifield Scott, emphasized a Southern blockade and advancing on the Mississippi River. And fourth, Union squadrons were charged with closing port cities and reducing coastal defenses. At one time or another during the war, all of these operations were conducted along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Third, Union warships were tasked with destroying Confederate commerce raiders on the high seas. Second, shallow-draft vessels were needed on the inland rivers, particularly the Mississippi and its tributaries, to support army operations. Union war plans included crippling the Confederacy’s economy by strangling their export of cotton, tobacco, and other cash crops. ![]() ![]() First, warships were needed to support the new blockade of Southern ports. Navy Secretary Gideon Welles ordered a crash shipbuilding and acquisition program, and on May 3, Lincoln issued a call for 18,000 new sailors to take the war to sea.īy mid-1861, the Navy had four missions. Navy that April could count only 42 commissioned warships, spread from Boston to Pensacola, and stationed overseas. On April 15, two days after the fall of Fort Sumter, Lincoln called for 75,000 new soldiers to suppress the rebelling states. Army, mustering around 16,000 men, was not large enough and was too spread out across the states and territories to mount a campaign against Richmond.
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