The Anaconda strategy and the infrastructure war

The Anaconda Plan is a system-level approach: close external access, use the Mississippi and other rivers as operational routes, and apply pressure from the coast and national borders. Winfield Scott recognised that the South lacked key layers of industry, transport, and supply infrastructure. Richmond held much of the Confederacy's industrial base, but making it the capital also placed the political centre close to the principal front. Northern railways increasingly formed an interconnected network, while Southern lines and industrial investment remained inadequate. In this interpretation, those prewar choices constrained Confederate strategy before the major campaigns began.