| United
States Military Academy West Point , NY |
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General Washington used this as his Military Headquarters during the years that America was negotiating its treaty with Britain, and later was used as a Military Academy. Today, West Point is the Army's training center. We arrived too late to tour the academy, so we visited the West Point Museum instead. Opened in 1854, it is the largest military collection in the western hemisphere. It showcases the evolution of war techniques and U.S. successes, but also show the other contribution of the Army on quality of life: medical research; frontier exploration; construction of railroads, canals, harbors, etc.; disease prevention; desegregation and civil disorder control. |
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Amanda thought it would have been very hard to be a soldier. "They didn't have the medicines that make you not feel anything, so if you had a broken leg or something the doctor would just saw it off." |
Duty,
Honor, Country : A History of West Point |
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The Greeks were the first people to have a permanent army. Before then, armies were organized at the time of a war, made up of mostly farmers with their farming tools. They trained for battle, even when there wasn't a war. They studied battles and weapons. Sometimes, a weapon was just a way of fighting, not only a shield or spear. One of these was a formation called a phalanx, which had rows of soldiers with long spears. Amanda learned how the phalanx worked. "The Greeks used the phalanx so the other people couldn't come too close without being killed. It kept the enemy away." It looked like a porcupine, and was a very strong defense. But the Romans discovered that the phalanx couldn't turn quickly, so if they could rush around behind they could defeat the phalanx. The Romans put archers on top of elephants and ran around behind. |
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A siege is when you surround your enemy's city or fortress, and blockade it, cutting off its supplies. As your enemy runs out of supplies, they get weaker, making it easier to capture them. The Gauls, the early French, built a wall on a hill in front of a depression, making it hard for the Romans to attack. But the Romans whipped up a siege wall in only 25 days. The siege wall made it easier for the Romans to attack the Gauls, because they could get up higher. They made rolling siege towers out of range of the Gauls. They filled it with soldiers, and pushed it toward the fortress wall, while a drawbridge door protected them. When they got to the wall, they opened up the door and hundreds of soldiers came pouring out onto the wall. There were also covered passageways and carts that allowed safe approach toward the fortress wall. |
100
Wars That Shaped World History |
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The Romans learned about the horse from the east (China, Pakistan). They learned that soldiers could ride on them, and move faster than the foot soldiers. These were the first Cavalry, and good-bye infantry. |
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To defeat the cavalry, armies learned to use the terrain to their advantage. They could also add defensive weapons like these spike sticking out of the hillside. The cavalry couldn't penetrate the spikes, but the infantry could still move about. |
100
Battles That Shaped World History |
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Technology keeps growing. Here the armies have guns, and all the other things that they used before that. The army uses terrain, like the river, and long spears, swords, archers, guns, and formations. |
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 Faces
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for more faces) |
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For Younger Readers |
For Older Readers |
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West
Point was the first permanent military training center for the new
country, America. George Washington chose this spot to defend the northern
colonies, because of its it was easy to defend. There is a narrow spot
on the Hudson River, with a good overlook, so they could keep the British
Army from going up the Hudson.
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