Orneriness, Stubbornness, Bullheadedness--Is there a Theme here?

A story about GGGG Grandpa Leonard Coker in Boone Co. Arkansas:
"Len Coker who lived at the mouth of Bear Creek, went up the creek looking for a live buffalo calf to capture and take home with him. He found a sizable herd but the cow was not happy with him taking her calf. The calf kicked and bleated. The mother came charging and snorting. She scattered the dogs and Coker rolled into a hole under the roots of a large sycamore tree. He finally had to turn loose of the calf and when he did its mother soon left with her offspring."


[Cephas is not one of the Bell cousins but a Costner cousin]
Cousin Cephas Bell, CSA, grandson of Uncle Thomas Costner, King's Mountain patriot
Cousin L. M. Hoffman tells this story about Cephas Bell, a Confederate soldier in the 28th North Carolina Regiment:
“His comrades say of him that he was not unusually bright but that he was unusually brave. On one occasion his command was ordered to charge the enemy entrenched on a hill. The Federals scattered in confusion and Bell leading in the rush did not notice that his command had halted in the enemy’s abandoned position but went on after an officer in the rear of the rout. He overtook his man and ordered him to surrender. The officer said he couldn’t surrender except to an officer. Bell swore at him and said he’d blow out his d----d brains if he didn’t surrender quick . . . . He took his prisoner back and meeting some officers as he approached headquarters they told him they’d take the prisoner. He said, ‘No you won’t; if you want to go get you one, there’s plenty of them over there [pointing in the direction the enemy had gone]. You shall not have mine.’”


Cousin Ed Tucker's Orneriness after the Civil War
Edward Tucker . . . was called upon by Chief McCurtain and his Lighthorse and told to pay or get out. To this demand Tucker replied,"You take your d--n Lighthorse and get away from here. I will not be run over any more by you. You robbed me of all I had during the War, and you are not going to rob me again. I had rather you would kill me, if you must, than to submit to your authority. If you are determined to put me out or kill me, I only ask that you kill me right here in the front yard where I can be decently buried."