Your comment reminded me of a poster my Dad had given me when I was a kid. It had a painting of the aftermath of some of the fighting during the Barbary Wars, where American sailors were tending to the pirates wounded. There was a quote from one of the defeated pirates who reportedly stated (and I am paraphrasing from memory) that the Americans “in battle, were as fierce as tigers, but in victory, as kind as musselmen.” I remember asking Dad what musselmen were, and he said it meant a man of faith, or a priest. I believe that is the general trait of the American fighting man. Fight like hell, but be merciful to your enemy when the fighting is done. What this boy did was in that tradition.
“Musselmen” was an archaic rendering of “muslim.” The Barbary pirates were muslim, and therefore could treat defeated infidels in any manner they liked (mostly quite cruelly). But they were bound by the Koran to treat defeated muslims humanely (in theory, at least). So the pirate was saying that the Americans fought fiercely, but were as compassionate as a muslim was supposed to be towards the pirates when the pirates lost. Not exactly as ringing an endorsement as one would like...