Scott’s Great Snake: The Anaconda Plan Civil War Cartoon Explained #9626 (License: Personal Use)

Created in 1861, “Scott’s Great Snake” is a satirical lithograph by artist E.B. & E.C. Kellogg that illustrates General Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan: a Union strategy to blockade Southern ports and seize the Mississippi River, thereby isolating and weakening the Confederacy. The giant black snake coils around the southern states, its head near Washington, D.C., symbolizing federal military pressure, while vignettes across the map depict regional conflicts, key figures, and symbolic scenes like enslaved people fleeing or Union troops advancing.

Used in educational resources, museum exhibits, and history websites to explain Civil War strategy and propaganda; matches user intent for learning about 19th-century American military tactics, political cartoons, or the origins of the Union’s war effort.