The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze the six special military units which were authorized and created by the War Department under the direction of Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton. In relating the military history of such special units the study determines what contributions and significance they made to the Union war effort.

Arkansas occupied a key position in the Confederate Trans-Mississippi Department. It offered a gateway for Confederate troops to move north and secure Missouri for the Confederacy, or for Union troops to move south towards Texas and Louisiana. During the war, Union and Confederate armies moved back and forth across the state engaging in numerous encounters. This paper is a year by year study of those encounters and engagements occurring in Arkansas between 1861 and 1865. Emphasis is necessarily placed on the significant campaigns and engagements. Actions which occurred in adjacent states but which militarily affected Arkansas are also discussed. The majority of the material was compiled from the Official Records.

This dissertation is an examination of the American oil industry in Saudi Arabia and its influence on United States foreign policy. The study examines the Americans who went to Saudi Arabia, the effect of the oil companies on Saudi- American relations, and the American government's response to oil company actions. There is an attempt to answer such questions as: Did the oil companies exert pressure on the American government to influence governmental policy? How effective was this pressure? And, what benefits did the oil companies have from their relationship with the government? The study concludes that Aramco was instrumental in bringing official and nonofficial contact and representation between Saudi Arabia and the United States. Moreover, Aramco was instrumental in involving the American government directly in Saudi Arabia through the extension of lend-lease aid to that country. American government involvement thwarted potential British ambitions in the Saudi oil resources and resulted in the American dominance of oil interests in that kingdom. In addition, Senate investigations showed that the oil companies grossly overcharged the United States Navy on oil purchases and that the financial assistance to Saudi Arabia was made for the protection of Aramco's oil concession.

The popular image of the West in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries incorporates radically opposing images: the West is viewed as a Garden of Eden at times, but it is also frequently seen as violent, a land inimical to man. The region both attracted and repelled. Among those attracted were artists who carried back some of the first images of the land. Thomas Moran (1837-1926) became associated quite early with the West because a pair of his paintings of western canyons was purchased by the United States Government.

This novel of the Vietnam War examines the effects of prolonged stress on individuals and groups. The narrative, which is told from the points of view of four widely different characters, follows an infantry company through three days and two nights of combat on a small island off the coast of the northern I Corps military region. The story's principal themes are the loss of communication that contributes to and is caused by the background of chaos that arises from combat; the effect of brutal warfare on the individual spirit; and the way groups reorganize themselves to cope with the confusion of the battlefield. The thesis includes an explication of the novel, explaining some of the technical details of its production.