Which U.S. general proposed the Union's Anaconda Plan?

Which U.S. general proposed the Union's Anaconda Plan? Winfield Scott. As the Union Army's general-in-chief in 1861, Scott outlined a strategy designed to isolate and economically strangle the Confederacy rather than rely solely on immediate assaults.

The plan had two main parts: blockade Southern ports and seize the Mississippi River. Controlling the river would divide the Confederacy, while the blockade would restrict its ability to import weapons and export cotton. The strategy was later nicknamed the Anaconda Plan because critics compared it to a snake suffocating its prey.

Scott's proposal was controversial among Northerners who wanted rapid offensive action. It also differed from the war's eventual conduct, which involved major land campaigns and far greater bloodshed than Scott hoped. George B. McClellan, Henry Halleck, and other Union commanders later shaped operations, but Scott was the general who proposed the foundational plan.