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"The study of war has occupied the mind of man since the dawn of recorded history. Every aspect of warfare has been examined in detail, catalogued, and categorized. As part of this detailed study, historians have analyzed all facets of the American Civil War. Campaigns, battles, and generals are but a few of the vast number of areas scrutinized. One area which had not been probed in any great depth concerns special military units of the Union army. Such units, authorized and created by the Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, have been neglected in the research of the war. This study will focus on six special units (Railroad Brigade, the U.S. Army Steam Ram Fleet, the Mississippi Marine Brigade, the Bureau of Military Information, the First District of Columbia Cavalry, and the U.S. Army Naval Brigade), in order to determine whether they contributed to the Union war effort and to consider their significance as part of the total history of the war. In conjunction with this, the investigation seeks to determine the motives of the War Department and the military reasons such units were created. Accordingly, the principles of war will be scrutinized and a determination made as to whether such military units applied or violated the maxims"--Preface.