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OCR A Level History AY315/01 The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945 MERGED QUESTION PAPER AND MARK SCHEME FOR MAY 2024 £8.52
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OCR A Level History AY315/01 The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945 MERGED QUESTION PAPER AND MARK SCHEME FOR MAY 2024

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OCR A Level History AY315/01 The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945 MERGED QUESTION PAPER AND MARK SCHEME FOR MAY 2024

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  • November 10, 2024
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Thursday 23 May 2024 – Morning
A Level History A
Y315/01 The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945
Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes




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, 2

SECTION A

Read the two passages and answer Question 1.


1 Evaluate the interpretations in both of the two passages.

Explain which you think is more convincing as an explanation of Confederate generalship during
the American Civil War. [30]


Passage A

Many charges have been brought against Confederate military leadership. It is often claimed that
while the South had brilliant tactical leaders, it produced no generals who rose to the level of strategic
vision demonstrated by Grant and Sherman. Robert E. Lee has particularly come in for criticism.
His strategic vision, it has been claimed, was limited to the Virginia theatre, where his influence
concentrated Confederate resources at the expense of the Western theatres. The result was that the
Confederacy lost the West – and thus lost the war. The Western Confederate armies also suffered
from inept generalship.

The Confederacy’s command structure in the West was also a problem. There was an impossible
tangle of authority and direction, so much so that it was not always clear who was in command.
Internal feuds among the Western generals did not help matters. The result was that Confederate
armies failed to develop a co-ordinated defence. President Davis ultimately bears responsibility for the
overlapping command structure. He has also been blamed for interfering too much in military matters
and for being responsible for feuds that built up between himself and commanders.

Confederate commanders are also charged with being too offensive-minded. It can be argued that
the Confederacy literally bled itself to death in the first three years of the war by making costly attacks
and losing their bravest men. It can be claimed that the Confederacy should not have tried to fight
a conventional war at all. Perhaps if it had relied more on guerrilla warfare, it might have eroded the
Northern will to fight.

A. Farmer, The American Civil War 1861–1865, published in 1996.

, 3

Passage B

The American Civil War saw elements of Napoleonic leadership. This was more apparent in terms
of high command, in the generalship of Robert E. Lee, the most important commander of the
Confederate forces. Like Napoleon, Lee found himself with smaller forces. He too forged a strong
personal bond with his men, who saw him in the early years of the war as invincible. His defence
of the South from the invasions launched by the North showed a mastery of the battlefield. Lee’s
strategy of defending Richmond while sending fast-moving forces into the Shenandoah Valley was
effective in preventing the North from using superior numbers to take Richmond.

A daring attack into Northern territory in 1863 distracted the North from its attacks and Lee was
able to withdraw in good order and escape Union attempts to cut his forces off from the South. It
showed that the South was capable of attack and able to withstand a heavy Union attack and still
outmanoeuvre the North. Lee’s defensive action in 1863 to prevent a heavy Union invasion was also
brilliantly conducted.

Lee, like Napoleon, had an eye for the battlefield; he divided his forces effectively and inspired
confidence by some bold strategic and tactical decisions. He also displayed effective defensive
leadership. However, he found that frontal assaults on well-established positions and the continuing
loss of manpower against enemies with greater human resources eroded his reputation.

The battle of Gettysburg was his greatest failure. However, his image as a military gentleman was
impressive.

M. Wells and N. Fellows, The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792-1945, published in 2016.

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