Here, indeed, is the man of action and of real silence, a character to be much admired and wondered at in these or any other days.
Washington's report looked like war, and its author was shortly afterwards appointed lieutenant-colonel of a Virginian regiment, Colonel Fry commanding.

Now began that long experience of human stupidity and inefficiency with which Washington was destined to struggle through all the years of his military career, suffering from them, and triumphing in spite of them to a degree unequaled by any other great commander.

Dinwiddie, the Scotch governor, was eager enough to fight, and full of energy and good intentions, but he was hasty and not overwise, and was filled with an excessive idea of his prerogatives.

The assembly, on its side, was sufficiently patriotic, but its members came from a community which for more than half a century had had no fighting, and they knew nothing of war or its necessities.

Unaccustomed to the large affairs into which they were suddenly plunged, they displayed a narrow and provincial spirit.
Keenly alive to their own rights and privileges, they were more occupied in quarreling with Dinwiddie than in prosecuting the war.