General Gregg came up to our gun. With strong emotion he shook hands with each of us; he then took off his hat, and said, "Boys, Texas will never forget Virginia for this! Your heroic stand saved the line, and enabled my brigade to rally, and redeem its honor. It is the first time it ever left a position under fire, and it was only forced out, now, by surprise, and overwhelming weight. But it could not have rallied except for you. God bless you!" This moment Bob Stiles came up at a run. He had left the guns a few moments before the attack came, and hearing our guns so busy came back. When General Gregg told him in a very enthusiastic way what we had done, he just rushed up to each cannoneer, and hugged him with a grip, strong enough to crush in his ribs, and vowed he was going to resign his Adjutancy at once, and come back to the guns. Pretty soon Major-General Field, commanding part of the line, came dashing up on his horse, and leaped off. He went round shaking hands with us, and saying very civil things. He was red hot! He had witnessed the whole thing from his position, on a hill near by. He said, "When he saw the Federals roll over our works, and the Texans fall back, he was at his wits' end. He did not have a man to send us, and thought the line was hopelessly broken." Then he saw us turn our two guns down inside the works. He said to his courier, "It isn't possible these fellows will even attempt to keep their guns there. The enemy will be over them in two minutes." But as our guns roared, and the enemy slowed down, he swung his hat, as the courier told us, and yelled out, "By George, they will do it!" and clapping spurs into his horse he came tearing over to find the Texans in their line, all solid again. He said to us, "Men, it was perfectly magnificent, and I have to say that your splendid stand saved the Army from disaster. If the line had been broken here I don't know what we should have done." Of course all this was very nice to hear. We tried to _look_ as if we were _used to this sort of thing all the time_. But, it was something for us, young chaps, to have our hands shaken nearly off, by enthusiastic admirers, in the shape of Brigadier and Major-Generals, especially as they were such heroic old veterans as Field and Gregg, and to have the breath hugged out of us by an old comrade. All this glory was only to be divided up among _nine men_, so there was a big share for each one. I must confess, it was very pleasant indeed to hear that men, who were judges, thought we had done a fine thing; and when in General Orders next day our little performance was mentioned to the whole army in most complimentary terms, and we knew that the folks at home would hear it, I am free to say, that we would _not_ have "taken a penny for our thoughts." =Contrast in Losses and the Reasons Therefor=