It is an article written by a civil war historian Dr. Richard C. Brown exploring the life of General Emory Upton in the formation of the modern American Military Army. There are few major figures in reflected in this article. The first one is Emory Upton who was the first American general who had seriously embarked upon the quest of meeting the challenges if an encroaching world needed for the military of the country. According to Brown, (1953), a major figure is General Sherman who insisted Upton to explore the military systems of the Asian countries first. The next major figure is of Peter S. Michie, a friend of Upton who published Upton’s biography in the year 1885. Elihu Root is also important, being a Secretary of War during the Spanish American War he had chief reliance on the ideas of Upton and wrote a preface to his work too.

As per the view of Brown, (1953), there were many changes mainly in the field of technology and innovation, in the post –civil war era. In the transportation field, the air braking system was developed by George Westinghouse and the sleeping cars were developed by George Pullman. The Carnegie Steel Corporation was built by Andrew Carnegie and sold that to J.P. Morgan which created the United States Steel Corporation. Standard Oil Company of Ohio was established by John David Rockefeller suggests Brown, (1953).In the field of communications, the first telegraphic sending device was developed by Samuel F.B. Morse. The Bell Telephone Company was formed after the invention of Telephone by Alexander Graham Bell. All of these technologies and innovations made industrialization possible.

The social climate of America was greatly affected by the immigration of the Chinese during the Civil War. Another great impact on the social life was that of the anger faced by the southern states. The slavery was lost in the south and so was the supply that served as a biggest economic factor for them. The slavery group tried to rise up as equals that led them to conduct terrorist activities since the year 1866. The article could have been made more interesting if it had included few real pictures of the post war years. It could have given some details about ‘The Army’s Dark Ages’. Since Upton had claimed that the traditional military policy had left them dangerously undefended, a detailed description on the previous condition could also be given to make it more valuable. There are apparently no flaws in the article as it clearly serves the purpose of demonstrating how the poor structure of the military army changed considerably anticipated and envisioned by General Upton.