Union Gen. William T. Sherman completed the Anaconda Plan by splitting the Confederacy on an east-west axis.

Chickamauga to Savannah is the third most important campaign of the Civil War. By Ned Harrison

Date published: 11/11/2006

THE PAST FEW columns have discussed the battles of the Civil War in order of importance, from my point of view, and how they helped affect the outcome of the war. Further, they have been portrayed in terms of military campaigns rather than individual battles. The context is Gen. Winfield Scott's Anaconda Plan for the defeat of the South.

So far, my ranking has begun with the twin campaigns of Gettysburg and Vicksburg as the most important. Second was the campaign which ended with the Battle of Antietam. (Note: Some experts consider the Battle of Bull Run II as the more important battle, but I prefer to look at it as part of the bigger Antietam campaign.)

The third most important campaign would be the series of battles that began with Chickamauga (Sept. 19-21, 1863), ran through Chattanooga (Nov. 23-25, 1863), and went on to the Battles for Atlanta (summer of '64); and Sherman's March through Georgia and the capture of Savannah at Christmas 1864.

This entire campaign was exactly what Gen. Scott had in mind when he proposed Anaconda: Divide the Confederacy into segments and isolate each one. It had already been done in July 1863, when Vicksburg surrendered, and in effect the Confederacy was split on the north-south axis.

In late 1863, and extending into Christmas 1864, the Chickamauga to Savannah Campaign split the South again, this time on an east-west axis. What had been in 1861 a huge 750,000-square-mile geographic colossus, stretching from the Atlantic to the far reaches of Texas, was by the end of 1864 three separate and isolated islands: There was the area west of the Mississippi; then, the deep South, including Alabama, the southern part of Georgia and Florida; and finally, the North Carolina-Virginia pocket.

Each was now faced with a choking blockade by the Union Navy but was still responsible for its own defense and the production of its own war-making facilities. In addition, each was responsible for producing its own food and other civilian needs.

Date published: 11/11/2006