![]() ![]() The Tennessee River Valley was also very important to the South.Grant's successful Vicksburg campaign effectively cemented Union control of the Mississippi River, and began the slow death knell for the Confederacy. Although the Eastern Theater was closer to the major centers of population and therefore often drew more attention, the Mississippi River represented a major strategic resource that would, if captured by the North, allow for the movement of men and material into the very heart of the South. Jefferson Davis called Vicksburg the "vital point" of the Confederacy. Control of the Mississippi River would prove decisive in the Civil War as well Pres.It was the most successful naval blockade to date, and the first one carried out exclusively by the use of a national navy, without employing privateers. The blockade accounted for the vast increase in the price of cotton abroad and the extreme scarcity of manufactured goods in the South by the end of the war, contributing to the Confederacy's defeat. ![]() The blockade itself, thought to be an impossible task against 3000 miles of highly irregular coastline, was an unparalleled success within the first 6 months, and nearly impregnable within the first 2 years. ![]() Lincoln called for a blockade of the South on April 19th, 1861, 6 days after the fall of Fort Sumter. Nonetheless, the particulars of the Plan were all carried through, the first 3 proving indeed to be the most decisive factors of the war: The plan as originally conceived by Scott also advised passivity, in that it suggested that once the Southern states were effectively cut off from their resources, the Union should wait for capitulation.
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