General Winfield Scott was one of the few senior men in Washington who realized that this could be a long war. He developed an appropriate naval strategy that would be decisive to the war's outcome. What was called his "Anaconda Plan" established a naval blockade around the coastline of the Confederacy to limit its economy and supply lines. Because of the thousands of miles of coastline, with many rivers, bays and inlets in addition to developed ports, the blockade proved largely ineffectual during the first couple of years of the war. Blockade runners initially imported military supplies to the Confederacy with relative ease. Deliveries of armaments and military supplies to the South, and cotton exports to England were coordinated by military agents such as Major Walker, who played a key role in supplying the Confederacy.