 The Union then controlled a main artery of transportation for the South, depriving the rest of the Confederacy of men, food and other supplies from the Confederate States west of the river.While not commonly lumped together under this designation, the river campaigns were undertaken mainly for reasons found in Union General-in-Chief Winfield Scott's 1861 Anaconda Plan.Scott proposed to defeat the Confederacy largely through blockade of ports and control of rivers leading to the economic 'strangulation' of the Confederacy, which he hoped would prevent a large number of bloody land battles.