On the night of July 2, 1863, Val Giles, age twenty-one, was huddled behind a large rock at the base of Big Round Top in Gettysburg after his Texas infantry unit had failed to wrest control of the mountaintop from Federal defenders earlier in the day.

He later described that night in his memoirs:

‘In making that long charge across the open field to the base of the mountain, our brigade got jammed up.

Every tree, rock and stump that gave any protection from the rain of Minié balls that were poured down upon us from the crest above us, was soon appropriated.

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