48,000...? The answer is there, isn’t it?
The Anaconda was General Scott's devise plan at the beginning of the civil war, It was greatly opposed by the press and General McClellan, they thought it was really slow and ponderous. In spring 1861 people thought it would be a short and glorious war, therefore, reducing the long-term Anaconda plan of slowly squeezing the life out of the Confederacy like an anaconda. However, they discovered that it wouldn't be a short war and the union had to follow a plan which was similar to the Anaconda.
