TO THE MIDTERM EXAM

Sir William Phips
Port Royal
Governor William Gooch
Gooch's American Regiment
William Pepperrell
Major General Edward Braddock
William Pitt (the Elder)
Major General Thomas Gage
Major General Benedict Arnold
Major General John Burgoyne
Lieutenant Colonel Barry St. Leger
Saratoga
Frederich Wilhelm von Steuben
Major General Nathanael Greene
Major General Henry Knox
Yorktown
Major General Anthony Wayne
Legion of the United States
Fallen Timbers
William Eaton
 

Major General William Henry Harrison
Tecumseh
Tippecanoe
Lieutenant Presley O'Bannon
Derna
Osceoloa
Captain Francis L. Dade
Dade Massacre
Second Seminole War
First Battle of Bull Run
Brigadier General Irvin McDowell
Brigadier General P. G. T. Beauregard
Shiloh
General Albert Sidney Johnston
General John C. Pemberton
Atlanta
General John Bell Hood
Gettysburg
Major General George Gordon Meade
Major General George Pickett

TO THE FINAL EXAM

Brigadier General George Crook
Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer
Little Bighorn
Emory Upton
The Military Policy of the United States
Elihu Root
John A. Logan
The Volunteer Soldier of America
Commandant Charles G. McCawley
Pancho Villa
Brigadier General John J. Pershing
Punitive Expedition
John P. Holland
Lieutenant General Oscar von Hutier
Brigadier General William "Billy" Mitchell
Five Power Treaty (Washington Treaty) of 1921
Major General John A. Lejeune
Major General Smedley D. Butler
Operation HUSKY
Lieutenant General George S. Patton, Jr.
Admiral Ernest J. King
 

U.S. 8^th Air Force
Operation WATCHTOWER
General Alexander A. Vandegrift
American Volunteer Group ("Flying Tigers")
Colonel Claire L. Chennault
Lieutenant General Joseph W. "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell
General Curtis E. LeMay
National Security Act of 1947
Natioanl Security Amendment of 1949
Massive Retaliation
Flexible Response
Robert S. McNamara
General Creighton W. Abrams, Jr.
Saddam Hussein
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
Operation DESERT SHIELD
Operation DESERT STORM
General Colin L. Powell
Operation URGENT FURY
Grenada
Operation JUST CAUSE
General Manuel Antonio Noriega

The crew of a 5-inch gun aboard the USS Olympia engages the
Spanish fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay, May 1, 1898.
The Olympia is now moored at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia.

1) Which military advantages did Great Britain possess at the start of the American Revolution? What factors helped to cancel out those advantages and give the Patriots a chance to win the war?

2) Why did Congress insist on keeping America's regular army and navy so small in peacetime during the years following the American Revolution? What steps did Congress take to raise substantial numbers of regulars in the Revolution, the War of 1812, and the Mexican War?

3) Why did the U,S, Army make such a dismal showing in the first two years of the War of 1812? Why did the U.S. Navy fail to protect the republic's coast and maritime trade?

4) If you were an American general in the War of Independence or the War of 1812, what would you do to get the most fight out of your militia?

5) What factors accounted for America's victory in the Mexican War?

6) Contrast the performance of Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott in the Mexican War. Who was the better general?

7) What factors permitted the Union to win the Civil War, and what factors permitted the Confederacy to prolong the struggle for four bloody years? In other words, what advantages did the Union enjoy going into the struggle, and what advantages were enjoyed by the Confederacy?

8) Describe the methods employed by the opposing sides to raise their respective armies in the Civil War. Why did Confederate units possess a higher proportion of veterans during the last two years of the struggle? And why did both Union and Confederate regiments exhibit such remarkably strong unit cohesion in even the war's bloodiest battles?

9) Compare Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis as war leaders. What qualities made Lincoln superior to Davis?

 General John J. Pershing (right), commander of the  American Expeditionary Force
during World War I,  with a French general.  (Courtesy National Archives)

FINAL EXAM ESSAY TOPICS

1) Describe Alfred Thayer Mahan's formula regarding the elements of sea power, as well as his "command of the sea" theory. What effect did Mahan's thinking have on the American public and the U.S. Navy in the 1880s and 1890s?

2) Why was the United States able to win a quick and relatively inexpensive victory in the Spanish-American War?

3) Rate the performance of Woodrow Wilson as commander-in-chief and that of General John J. Pershing as commander of the American Expeditionary Force in World War I. Which one did a better job? Give ample reasons to support your answer.

4) Describe the "Arsenal of Democracy" strategy that the United States followed in World War II. How did this strategy affect America's manpower mobilization and the size of U.S. armed forces? Do you feel that this strategy allowed America to pull its weight in winning the war? Explain why.

5) What did the 1947 book, Men against Fire, reveal about the behavior of American troops in combat in World War II? How did the author explain such behavior? How did this book affect the thrust of Army and Marine Corps training in the 1950s and 1960s?

6) Briefly describe the military career of one America's most prominent 20^th-century soldiers, General Douglas MacArthur. What traits contributed to his many successes as a military commander? Feel free to furnish examples from his various campaigns. What traits contributed to his ultimate downfall during the Korean War?

7) Describe the strategic bombing campaign mounted by the USAAF and the RAF against Nazi Germany in World War II. How did the USAAF and RAF differ in their methods and objectives? Which air force was more effective? How did strategic bombing contribute to the Allied victory?

8) What was the initial objective of the United States when it entered the Korean War? How did that objective change in the fall of 1950? What disagreement over policy caused a falling out between UNC General Douglas MacArthur and his commander-in-chief, President Harry S. Truman?

9) Why did the United States lose the war in Vietnam? Could the American military have done anything better in its conduct of the war?