 helped to start what would become an international war between two empires. I always wondered, what did that feel like for young George? And even though he was on the British side, not everyone in London was happy about this. British statesman Horace Walpole later said, and I quote, that it was a volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America that set the world on fire. It was not the last time George Washington would be a source of frustration for the British.