An Episode of War

1. breastwork (noun):

a defensive work, usually chest-high 

“Corporals and other representatives of the grimy and hot-throated men who lined the breastwork had come for each squad's portion.” (Paragraph 1)

2. thronging (present progressive verb):

crowding

3. reap (verb):

to gather or take

“He was on the verge of a great triumph in mathematics, and the corporals were thronging forward, each to reap a little square, when suddenly the lieutenant cried out and looked quickly at a man near him as if he suspected it was a case of personal assault.” (Paragraph 2)

4. compelled (past participle):

forced; driven; brought about by force

“The officer had, of course, been compelled to take his sword into his left hand.” (Paragraph 5)

5. stupefaction (noun):

overwhelming amazement

6. trident (noun):

a three-pronged weapon

“In short, this weapon had of a sudden become a strange thing to him. He looked at it in a kind of stupefaction, as if he had been endowed with a trident, a sceptre, or a spade.” (Paragraph 5)

7. sheathe (verb):

to enclose in a casing or covering

“Finally he tried to sheathe it.” (Paragraph 6)

8. sawdust ring (noun):

circus ring or enclosed area for a fight or act

“To sheathe a sword held by the left hand, at the middle of the blade, in a scabbard hung at the left hip, is a feat worthy of a sawdust ring.” (Paragraph 6)

9. potentates (plural noun):

persons who possess great power, like a monarch

“It is as if the wounded man's hand is upon the curtain which hangs before the revelations of all existence--the meaning of ants, potentates, wars, cities, sunshine, snow, a feather dropped from a bird's wing; and the power of it sheds radiance upon a bloody form, and makes the other men understand sometimes that they are little.” (Paragraph 7)

10. precipitate (verb):

bring about prematurely, hastily, or suddenly 

“Moreover, they fear vaguely that the weight of a finger upon him might send him headlong, precipitate the tragedy, hurl him at once into the dim, gray unknown.” (Paragraph 7)

11. proffered (past tense verb):

offered or proposed

“There were others who proffered assistance.” (Paragraph 8)

12. corps standard (noun):

a flag used for personal identification; here, the flag used to identify the subdivision of an army

13. maniacal (adjective):

overly excited, raving, lunatic, crazed

14. chargers (noun):

horses suitable to be ridden in battle

“To the rear of the general and his staff a group, composed of a bugler, two or three orderlies, and the bearer of the corps standard, all upon maniacal horses, were working like slaves to hold their ground, preserve, their respectful interval, while the shells boomed in the air about them, and caused their chargers to make furious quivering leaps.” (Paragraph 11)

15. battery (noun):

a tactical unit of artillery, usually consisting of six guns together with the artillerymen, equipment, etc., required to operate them.

16. tumultuous (adjective):

marked by disturbance and uproar

“A battery, a tumultuous and shining mass, was swirling toward the right.” (Paragraph 12)

17. aggregation (noun):

a group or mass of things

“The battery swept in curves that stirred the heart; it made halts as dramatic as the crash of a wave on the rocks, and when it fled onward, this aggregation of wheels, levers, motors, had a beautiful unity, as if it were a missile.” (Paragraph 12)

18. reverberated (past tense verb):

reechoed or resounded

“Later, he turned his eyes toward the battle where the shooting sometimes crackled like bush-fires, sometimes sputtered with exasperating irregularity, and sometimes reverberated like the thunder.” (Paragraph 14)

19. inscrutable (adjective):

not easily understood; mysterious; unfathomable

“He saw the smoke rolling upward and saw crowds of men who ran and cheered, or stood and blazed away at the inscrutable distance.” (Paragraph 14)

20. appropriated (past tense verb):

took possession of

“He appropriated the lieutenant and the lieutenant's wound.” (Paragraph 16)

21. gesticulating (present participle):

making or using gestures, especially in an animated or excited manner with or instead of speech

“The drivers were tossing the blame of it back and forth, gesticulating and berating, while from the ambulances, both crammed with wounded, there came an occasional groan.” (Paragraph 17)

22. interminable (adjective):

unceasing; incessant

“An interminable crowd of bandaged men were coming and going. Great numbers sat under the trees nursing heads or arms or legs.” (Paragraph 17)

23. disclosed (past participle):

revealed; uncovered

24. disdainfully (adverb):

in a way that shows contempt or scorn

“When the wound was disclosed the doctor fingered it disdainfully.” (Paragraph 19)

25. flushed (past tense verb):

reddened; caused to blush or glow

“The lieutenant had been very meek, but now his face flushed, and he looked into the doctor's eyes.” (Paragraph 20)

26. wrathfully (adverb):

in a way that is very angry or shows great ire

“‘Let go of me,’ said the lieutenant, holding back wrathfully, his glance fixed upon the door of the old school-house, as sinister to him as the portals of death.” (Paragraph 22)