The feeling of disaffection on the part of many of the citizens of Long Island was so apparent to the Convention of Representatives that, in refusing the request to exempt them from a draft, that body considered it necessary to appoint a committee to visit Kings County for the purpose of ascertaining the true state of public feeling in the county, with power to take from all disaffected citizens such arms as they might possess, to secure their persons, and, if deemed necessary, "to destroy the crops and lay the whole country waste," and thus prevent them from affording aid and comfort to the enemy. The committee entered upon their labors with energy and dispatch. They ascertained that the reports were in a great measure true. By their direction Tories were arrested and disarmed. The action of the committee produced a beneficial effect amongst the people, and, had they not taken the forcible measures they did, the first battle of the Revolution after the Declaration of Independence, which was fought on Long Island soon after, to wit, on the 27th day of August, would in its results have proved still more disastrous. General Greene made ample provision to protect and defend Long Island against the enemy. As we have already seen, he caused a line of fortifications to be constructed through the centre of the present city of Brooklyn, extending from Wallabout Bay on the north to Gowanus Bay on the south. Conspicuous among the fortifications so constructed was the redoubt on Fort Greene, which was called Fort Putnam in honor of that brave officer General Israel Putnam, who figured with distinction not only in Brooklyn but elsewhere, and subsequently gained for himself the name of Breakneck Putnam for his daring exploit in Connecticut when he dashed down the celebrated defile, and thereby escaped capture. At this time Fort Putnam, now Washington Park (Fort Greene), was covered with large trees, and belonged to the Cowenhoven estate. The old Bedford Road skirted its northeasterly line, and its prominence was a valuable position for placing guns. It is worthy of note in this connection that Edward T. Backhouse, a descendant by marriage of the original owner, when representing the old eleventh ward of Brooklyn in the Common Council, in the middle of the present century, took an active interest in securing the preservation of this historic spot and its conversion into a place of public resort. He aided materially, with Francis B. Stryker, late Mayor, Silas Ludlow, John W. Hunter, John H. Baker, and others, in having it set apart for a park, and properly embellished. Another means of protection was the construction of intrenchments extending from Fort Putnam to the old Wallabout Road, at a point about where Hampden Street intersects the present line of Flushing Avenue. Before Flushing Avenue was opened, at this point, the easterly end of the Navy Yard property, the old Wallabout Road diverged from its course, describing a half circle.