Page:America Fallen!.djvu/192

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180
America Fallen

barkation afforded by the possession of New York and Boston, that by April 5th, including the raiding force, two army corps, or 80,000 troops, fully equipped and ready for service in the field, had been landed in America.

And thereafter during the next five days, the faster ships of the transports which sailed from Germany on April 1st began to arrive, warping into the piers at New York and Boston, which had been vacated by the earlier transports; so that by April 10th the German forces in the United States had been raised to 100,000 men.

Bold, indeed, was the strategy which dared to send this army to sea in unarmed transports, while the main fleet of the enemy was still "in being," or intact upon the high seas. Had not the great Mahan and many another authority before him laid it down, that before troops were embarked the enemy fleet must be either