His inexperienced and poorly equipped army of civilian soldiers

OFFICIAL EXPLANATION


I am writing this official explanation as closely to the original as I feel comfortable doing.

MEANING ANALYSIS

• His inexperienced and poorly equipped army of civilian soldiers
-- even with it,
-- General Washington leading an effective war against British forces in America, defeating one of the most powerful nations on the earth.

Because there are major structural issues with this sentence, the meaning is not absolutely clear.

As far as we can discern at the moment,
1) General Washington's [GW] army was inexperienced and ill-equipped
2) GW fought an effective war against the British
3) "even with it" probably refers to the army of civilian soldiers but its placement and phrasing are bizarre.

Contrast already exists because his army is in bad shape. They are civilians. They are taking on a powerful nation.
Although contrast inherently exists in the content, making that "contrary to expectation" aspect very clear is wise: GW led a ragtag army, and he and they defeated a superpower .
This "even with it" phrase is trying to make that contrast explicit.

ERROR ANALYSIS
• There is no verb for the subject General Washington
• The phrase His inexperienced . . . is not connected properly to the rest of the sentence, leading to unclear meaning.


ANSWER CHOICES

A. His inexperienced and poorly equipped army of civilian soldiers, even with it, General Washington leading
• option A contains the same errors as those discussed in the analysis section
ELIMINATE

B. With his army of civilian soldiers, inexperienced and poorly equipped, General Washington led
• Possible meaning error: "with" does not really express contrast.
• we know only that GW, along with his raggedy troops, led an effective war.
• We will keep looking to see whether a better option exists, one that contains both clarity and explicit contrast
KEEP

C. Despite being inexperienced and poorly equipped, General Washington’s army of civilian soldiers led
• This choice presents contrast but is illogical. Why mention General Washington unless he is . . . well, the person who led the attack?
• the army did not lead the attack on the British. The general led the attack.

D. General Washington led his inexperienced and poorly equipped army of civilian soldiers into
• possible meaning error: same as that in B.
KEEP

E. Despite his inexperienced and poorly equipped army of civilian soldiers, General Washington led
• This choice seems clear, grammatical, and logical
• Despite is a preposition that must be followed by a noun or noun phrase
• Despite conveys this meaning: even though GW and his soldiers faced difficulties, they were unaffected by those difficulties—they still won the war.
-- Correct: Despite having spent 27 years in solitary confinement for leading the protest against South African racial apartheid, Nelson Mandela did not emerge as a bitter or cynical man. (Even though Mandela was imprisoned and alone for 27 years, his character was unaffected by the brutal and lengthy punishment.)

Compare B and E
-- option B uses essentially the same words as those in E except that with replaces despite
-- option B makes it sound matter-of-fact that GW and his raggedy troops won a war against a powerful nation.
With = together with a raggedy band of civilians, GW led . . . .

Option E is better.
-- B states the facts but does not emphasize the contrast.
-- Logically and stylistically it makes more sense to emphasize the stark contrast.

That last fact becomes even more evident when we see D.
-- D is grammatical.
-- D also lacks the dynamism and contrast present in option E. Option D does not use "despite."
The sentence drones.

Strategic part to keep in mind: two of the three remaining options do not emphasize contrast.
One of three does emphasize contrast.
The difference between B and D is not significant. D is the better sentence, but not by much.
Make a decision. As a matter of strategy, the one option that is different from the other two nearly indistinguishable option must be the answer.

Alternatively, decide that it makes more sense to emphasize stark contrast than not to do so. (Compare D and E. D is too matter-of-fact.)

The correct answer is E.

COMMENTS

sharathnair14 , welcome to Butler.

Some of these answers are very well-explained.
I am happy for the people who will read this thread.

I am grateful to our guest. He did me a favor. (These questions are hella hard to find, folks.)
I demonstrated that I appreciated his efforts.
Perhaps you could do the same. He posted the question. At the top. First post.

bebs , thank you for providing a good question with which people can see that three grammatical sentences are not all equal.

Kudos to those who posted explanations.