Of the three nations already at war with the revolutionists, England was unquestionably the greatest Naval Power. It was determined that the united fleet of the allies should be put under the command of Admiral Seymour, already in American waters. Germany and France forgot their traditional hatred for the time, and vied with each other as to which should succeed in relinquishing to the other the supreme authority over the army. It was finally agreed that General Count von Blücken, the strategist who had succeeded to the command of the German army, should have control in the field, with a staff comprising an equal number of French, German, and English officers. Before the middle of January, 1888, the arrangements perfected by the conference had been ratified by the various Governments interested, and preparations were being pushed rapidly forward for the spring campaign. General Sir Evelyn Wood had been put in command of the British forces in and around Boston. Admiral Seymour returned to London early in January, and held a long consultation there with General Wood, General von Blücken, and General de l’Isle, who was to command the French contingent. Long Island Sound, itself an immense land-locked harbor, was selected as the rendezvous of the fleets. On the northern shore of the Sound was marked out the point for the collection of the army. Before the end of February Seymour returned to America. He was accompanied by considerable reinforcements for the British garrison in Boston. Within a week after his departure the first convoy of the allies sailed from Havre. It consisted of seven powerful ships of war and a fleet of transports under their protection, bearing nearly fifty thousand men. Only a day later the first German contingent sailed from Bremen. Day by day and week by week others followed. The allies knew that they had undertaken a Herculean task in the subjugation of the United States, torn and divided though its once impregnable power had become. They determined to make no mistake in underestimating the resistance which they were likely to meet. Before the end of April they had in the Sound, occupying various harbors along its shores, a fleet of one hundred and twenty men-of-war. On shore, including the British troops garrisoning Boston, they had an army of half a million men, all trained soldiers, all armed with the most perfect weapons which modern science had discovered and modern skill invented, and in receipt, even after that enormous number had been reached, of constant reinforcements.