 As McClellan scrambled to process the thousands of men who were volunteering for service and to set up training camps , he also applied his mind to grand strategy . He wrote a letter to Gen. Scott on April 27 , four days after assuming command in Ohio , that presented the first proposal for a strategy for the war . It contained two alternatives , each envisioning a prominent role for himself as commander . The first would use 80 @,@ 000 men to invade Virginia through the Kanawha Valley toward Richmond . The second would use the same force to drive south instead , crossing the Ohio River into Kentucky and Tennessee . Scott rejected both plans as logistically infeasible . Although he complimented McClellan and expressed his " great confidence in your intelligence , zeal , science , and energy " , he replied by letter that the 80 @,@ 000 men would be better used on a river @-@ based expedition to control the Mississippi River and split the Confederacy , accompanied by a strong Union blockade of Southern ports . This plan , which would require considerable patience of the Northern public , was derided in newspapers as the Anaconda Plan , but eventually proved to be the outline of the successful prosecution of the war . Relations between the two generals became increasingly strained over the summer and fall . 
