A New Military Strategy

The defeat at Bull Run proves the war will not be short. Lincoln calls for 500,000 new soldiers, chooses a new military policy, and gives command to General George McClellan. President Lincoln ordered a naval blockade of the seceded states, by shutting down the South’s ports along the Atlantic Coast and the Gulf of Mexico, Lincoln hoped to keep the South from shipping its cotton to Europe. He also wanted to prevent Southerners from importing the manufactured goods they needed.

 Confederate president Jefferson Davis planned for a defensive war, he believed that the South’s basic plan was to prepare and wait. A Southern strategy called war of attrition planning to continuous losses to Union in order to wear down its strength. Confederates leaders