Thetighteninganaconda

Little chance•With the Union victory at

Vicksburg, a river city in Mississippi, announced July 4, 1863, the Mississippi River was in complete control of the Union.

Little chance•This meant that the

Anaconda Plan of Winfield Scott, a plan he had suggested would be necessary at the beginning of the war, but was told would not be needed, was working.

Little chance• The Confederacy was being

choked off by the naval blockade in the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean, and with the loss of the Mississippi, valuable supplies smuggled in from Texas could not reach the troops.

Little chance• Victories at Chattanooga, an

important railroad city in Tennessee, and Mobile, an important port city in Alabama opened the door for Union troops to divide the Confederacy in half again.

Little chance•By September 2, 1864, General William T. Sherman had captured Atlanta, a vital Confederate city if not its heart.

Merry christmas•On November 15, 1864, Sherman marched his troops out of the city of Atlanta on his way to the sea.

Merry christmas•Sherman’s army started with

rations that would last them 20 days and then they would be forced to “live off the land,” eating whatever the foragers could bring back for them.

Merry christmas•He and his troops followed

the scorched earth policy, which meant that crops would be burned, livestock killed, supplies consumed, and anything that might aid the Confederates destroyed.

Merry christmas•This included railroad lines, which were torn up and bent around trees, earning them the nickname “Sherman’s neckties.”

Merry christmas•This type of military policy

is also called “total war,” meaning a nation mobilizes all of its resources to destroy other nation’s ability to make war.

Merry christmas• The Confederates would long

remember the devastation that Sherman brought to Georgia and it would make it more difficult to bring them back into the Union when the war was over.

Merry christmas• For the better part of six weeks,

Sherman and his troops were out of contact with anybody in the Union, finally reaching the outskirts of Savannah, Georgia along the Atlantic Ocean on December 20.

Merry christmas•The Confederates escaped

and retreated rather than fight the Union armies and on December 22, 1864, Sherman and the Union marched into the city.

Merry christmas•Sherman sent a telegram to President Lincoln saying “I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah…”

Merry christmas•The “anaconda” was slowly but surely tightening its grip on the Confederacy and it was only a matter of time before they would suffocate.