We were always wild...

"...But the victory was so stunning and the differences in military style so complete that one can say without exaggeration that Colonial America with all its stylistic dependence on European forms of propriety, began conclusively to die along with Ferguson's soldiers on King's Mountain.  And it was being replaced by the raw individualism of an uneducated and testy group that the Europeans, perhaps always, would quizzically view as 'mongrels.' "  Don't you just love a well-written, exciting sentence about a battle royal?  This passage is from James Webb about the battle of King's Mountain between British regulars and Colonial Scots-Irish militia in 1780 during the Revolutionary.

Passions in patriots always ran high; Americans were always wild. An ignominious slaughter must of necessity always be returned of some kind.  Human beings have souls, which are tricky things.