Early in the war, Gen. Winfield Scott developed the "Anaconda Plan" which had as it's objectives:

• Encircle the South in a Naval blockade.
• Divide the Confederacy by capturing the Mississippi and Tennessee Rivers.
• Gradually constrict the life out of the South.

Soon after the first shots of the war were fired at Ft. Sumter, SC, on April 12, 1861, the Mississippi River became a focus in the war plans of both sides. "The Father of Waters" had moved lumber, wheat, corn, and meat from the Midwest, cotton and tobacco from the Upper South to New Orleans, and European goods upriver. Control of the Mississippi and the rivers that flow into it would allow the North to move troops and supplies deep into the South while crippling the Confederacy's ability to survive. The South needed to protect itself, especially the rich farmland of the Mississippi River Valley, from Northern invasion.

With northern Missouri securely under Union control by Fall 1861, both sides massed troops - the North along the Ohio River and the South across Tennessee. Each side waited and watched, careful not to tip the balance in neutral Kentucky toward the other.

On September 1, 1861, Confederate General Leonidas Polk seized the Kentucky river towns of Hickman and Columbus. He began erecting fortifications at Columbus to defend the river as part of a Confederate defense line that stretched across southern Kentucky from Columbus to Cumberland Gap. General Ulyses Grant quickly countered by crossing the Ohio river from Cairo, IL, and occupying Paducah and Smithland, KY. The watching and waiting was over and the lines had finnaly been drawn.

Late in 1861--with the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts under active Union blockade--Union land and naval forces launched a key element of the Anaconda Plan by simultaneously heading south from Paducah, KY, and north from the Gulf of Mexico to wrest control of the Lower Mississippi River Valley from the Confederates.

At that time, the Union Naval command recognized that the execution of the river portion of the Anaconda Plan would depend on several accomplishments:

1. The capture of New Orleans which, while not itself heavily fortified, was well protected by Forts Jackson and St. Philip about 70 miles below the city.
2. Control of the mouth of the Red River down which supplys were flowing to the eastern Confederate states from Mexico and Texas.
3. Reduction of Fort Henry, TN, on the Tennessee River and nearby Fort Donelson, TN, on the Cumberland River.
4. The Reduction of the Confederate strongholds at Columbus, KY--Belmont, MO, and, subsequently, New Madrid, MO, and nearby Island No. 10.
5. Finally, the capture of Vicksburg, MS, which, with it's high bluffs and formidable gun emplacements, was called "The nail which holds the two halves of the Confederacy together. (Note: Other Confederate fortifications along the river--Ft. Pillow, TN, Memphis, TN, Grand Gulf, MS, Port Hudson, LA--were not armed well enough to be considered a serious threat to Union River operations.)

The initial engagement of the river portion of Anaconda was at Belmont, MO, on November 7, 1861.