Winfield Scott

[samgrant]

Though his so called "Anaconda Plan" was derided, it turned out that that strategy was in fact actually the one that won the war.

I have just read that in October of 1860, he sent to Pres. Buchanan suggestions that if there were to be secession, that the nation might be divided into four confederacies.

(From - Reveille in Washington by Margaret Leech)

Does anyone have any insight to this? Wonder how he might have split them up?

Also, any , info, ideas about brevet Lt. Gen. Scott, relating to the "impending crisis" would be appreciated.

[OpnDownfall]

Scott's main problem was his age and ill health, which prevented him from being able to effectively counter the operation of McClellan and his cabal of synchopants. His absence from the halls of power made it easy to cut him out of the information loop in Washington.
IMO, he had many solid ideas, but they had to be sifted to extract the nuggets from the dross. His plan for dividing the country into four sections, would surely have permanently tainted any advice from Scott, in the eyes of Lincoln and the radicals.
It is my understanding that Scott's Anaconda Plan did not envision large scale troop movements, it seems to have been a plan to seal off the South from outside help and then sit back and let the south come to its senses, however long that would take.
Without being able to be present to actively and forcefully fight for his plans, it is little wonder that Lincoln and other Unionists wandered away and let McClellan gain sway at the White House and Congress.

[ole]

Thanks, OD. I couldn't have said it near as well as you did. Scott foresaw a long war well before it dawned on other leaders. It's difficult to imagine what effect he would have had if he hadn't been so infirm.
Ole

[whitworth]

Much of the Civil War history is drawn to what happened in eastern Virginia, from Washington, D.C. to Richmond.
The original intent of the Confederacy was to control all the Slave states, except Delaware, and the New Mexico territory of the United States. There was an enormous area the United States had to control.
We seem to fairly well ignore the places where the Confederacy had little success during the war. Places such as Kentucky, Maryland, northern Tennessee, Arkansas and the New Mexico territory. While Vicksburg fell in 1863, the Union navy controlled most of the Mississippi River by mid-1862.
Historians and readers of the war seem uninterested in Kentucky, Missouri, New Mexico, and the Mississippi River before the fall of Vicksburg.
By 1862, it was apparent that the Confederacy would fail in reaching many of their goals on secession.

In 1862, from British records, the weaknesses of the Confederacy were clearly seen. Britain never did intend to get involved militarily in assisting the Confederacy.
The Confederate founding fathers made some major stategic gaffs when they declared secession. Secession as the Confederacy understood it meant war; a war which from the beginning meant major objectives were unreachable.

[OpnDownfall]

It is interesting, that McClellan, although not necessarily believing it would be a 'Long' war, did believe that the organizing and preparation for the war, would inevitably take considerable time before a 'successful' campaign could be implemented.
In his attempt to gain complete control of the major forces of the Union, McClellan pretended that the delays in his campaign, was the result of Scott's mistaken plans for a long war. Apparently not realizing that by ridding himself of Scott he also eliminated the screen behind which his own dilitoriness had been hidden.
If they had not been natural rivals, Scott and McClellan would had discovered that they probably, had more in common than either had with Lincoln.