Rappahannock is fun to say…

The sun had been wrestling with the horizon for an hour.

Now gracefully rising, beams shot across the Rappahannock River.

The steady stream of light caught axe heads twirling through the air.

Each razor edge was glinting, hungry for the tree.

Cleaved at each bite and spit into the sky, snowy white wood chips blanketed the ground.

Orange, yellow and brown, leaves tumbled to rest, adding a fiery carpet.

It was 1781, the millstone of war had been grinding the land and her men for six years.

And now, burning for a moment, hope of victory and peace – Lord Cornwallis made a mistake.

The Continental Army was ready. The march began.

A bridge was needed and Corporal Edward Wallace and his men were charged with dropping the trees.

There were more trees than men, and the trees fell slowly.

Wallace, shouting and urging his men, surveyed the field from atop a large stump.

A rider galloped into the expanding clearing and hailed the officer.

Edward puzzled over the man’s uniform first, it was sharp but plain.

Then he noticed his face, gentle and full of weariness.

“You haven’t enough men for the job, have you?” the older man said.

“No sir. Reinforcements have been called, but no answer given.”

“Why don’t you lend a hand yourself?”

“Me? Why, I am a corporal…” he said, straightening his uniform.

“Ah, yes you are…” the rider was on the ground with a bounce, suddenly looking much younger.

Gripping an axe, the older man joined in razing the trees.

After the last stand was tumbled, the visitor returned the tool, wiped his hands and head, and mounted his animal.

“Corporal, the next time you have a job to put through and too few men to do it, you had better send for the Commander-in-Chief, and I will come again.”

He heeled his horse, and was gone.

Corporal Wallace was statued on his stump, staring to the woods where the hooves had disappeared.

Finally, containing his shock, he climbed down.

General Washington humbled a number of trees that day with an axe.

But he humbled a man when he humbled himself.