Short answers, pulled from the story.
Union General-in-Chief Winfield Scott proposed the Anaconda Plan on the 3rd of May 1861. The strategy aimed to cut the Confederacy in two by blockading all ports and advancing down the Mississippi River with a column of perhaps 80,000 men.
The siege of Vicksburg terminated on the 4th of July 1863. Confederate General John C. Pemberton surrendered approximately 29,500 men to Ulysses S. Grant after the city fell to Federal forces.
Wilmington remained the only serious problem for the blockade after New Orleans fell on the 29th of April 1862. Most trade between the Confederacy and northern Europe continued through Wilmington after Charleston was largely sealed off in mid-July 1863.
Historians estimated that between 2,500 and 2,800 attempts were made to run the blockade throughout the war. At least an 80% success rate allowed more than three-quarters of these attempts to succeed despite Union efforts.
Winfield Scott retired by the end of 1861 due to age and infirmity. He died before he could impose his strategic vision on the government or see the full execution of the plan.