1. CIVIL WAR BATTLE STRATEGIES North vs South

2. UNION STRATEGY 1: BLOCKADES  Definition – to obstruct  A blockade would prevent the South from selling its cotton abroad and importing war equipment and supplies from foreign nations  Union initially had 26 ships running up and down the Southern coast  Later they added ironclads (armored ships)  Blockade runners (private ships that would slip past the blockades to bring in supplies) were very successful – the runners made thousands of dollars  As the war progressed the runners had a more difficult time  Why was it essential for the South to have blockade runners?

3. UNION STRATEGY 2: ANACONDA PLAN  This strategy involved capturing the Mississippi River and splitting the confederacy in half leaving Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana stranded  Got its name for the fact if it was successful it would squeeze the confederacy to death just the giant anaconda snake squeezes its prey to death

4. UNION STRATEGY 3: TWOFOLD  Destroy confederate armies on the battlefield  Lay waste to the land so that southern civilians would stop supporting the war  This ultimately becomes Sherman’s March to the Sea

5. CONFEDERATE STRATEGY 1: LAND  Wear down the invading Union armies  Felt rising casualties would weaken northerners’ support for the war

6. CONFEDERATE STRATEGY 2: SEA  Make sure the blockade did not work  Used swift raiders (fast, lightly armed ships) to capture Union merchant ships and draw the Union Navy away from their blockade duties  Used ironclads and even a submarine to sink the Union’s wooden ships and to open southern ports for trade with other nations

7. CONFEDERATE STRATEGY 3: POLITICAL  Known as King Cotton Diplomacy  Southern leaders believed that the British and French textile mills needed the South’s cotton to keep running  They believed if they stopped selling cotton abroad for a time, France and Great Britain would be forced to help the South break the blockades to get the cotton they needed  The North put pressure on France and Great Britain and those two nations switched to cotton grown in Egypt