a Savage race from Asia that marauded throughout Europe during the fourth and fifth centuries A.D. Also, an offensive term for people of Germanic ancestry, significant here because Germans comprised a good proportion of the troops in the Eleventh Corps.
b Military slang used by veterans to taunt new recruits about their inexperience.
c Short for Johnny Reb, slang for a Confederate soldier. The equivalent for a Union soldier was Billy Yank.
d Dialect alteration of kit and caboodle, meaning “the whole thing.”
e Mild oath probably originating in mythology—from Gemini, the twins. Several linguists, however, believe that the expression derives from a German phrase invoking Jesus.
f Located in Saratoga County in upstate New York.
g Mild oath invoking the devil.
h Colloquialism for Jesus’ Rod, invoking Christ’s power and authority as shepherd. Some traditions believe that Christ possessed Moses’ rod. Several religious denominations would consider this phrase used in such a context as blasphemous.
i The term skedaddle, meaning “desertion under fire,” became popular early during the Civil War.
j Informal term for a man, derived from either curse or customer.
k Person in a hopeless situation; several linguists believe this meaning derives from the word’s use as a racist term for an African American.
l The Orange Turnpike, an east-west road between Orange Court House and Fredericksburg.
m In Irish and Scottish folklore, a female spirit whose wailing under a window portends a death in the family.
n Colloquialism for the mild oath Lord!
o Variation of the dialect term hellwhoop; means “at great speed.”
p Lively folk dance, usually performed alone and so named because it was originally accompanied by a musical instrument called a hornpipe; once popular among British sailors.
q A particularly derisive denunciation.
r Popular slang for “exceedingly fine,” from the nineteenth-century aesthetic movement that affected extravagant elegance in dress and deportment.
s American colloquialism for “a bunch.”
t Cowardly lout or rogue.
u Shaft is slang for harsh and unfair usage; two paragraphs down, Crane playfully returns to the word’s original meaning with the phrase arrow of scorn.
v Disparaging slang for “coarse, nagging, scolding women.”
w Neglected boy who lives primarily on city streets; Crane developed this metaphor from his experience in the Bowery district in New York City.
x Popular interjection to indicate surprise.
y A toddy is a drink usually made from brandy, water, sugar, and spices.
z From the phrase “I’ll be hanged”; suggests confoundedness.
aa In the manual of arms, a position in which a soldier holds his rifle vertically next to his right leg with the butt resting on the ground.
ab Here meaning a stupid person; from a word once used to describe an ill-bred, ugly horse.
ac Roughnecks, street brawlers.
ae An English proverb that dates back to the Renaissance.
af Literally. a teamster; here, a disparaging term used by military officers to describe troops not proven under fire. The term calls attention to noncombat activity, ironic here because several of Fleming’s New York peers had likely been teamsters prior to their military service.
ag “Good-by John” was a popular American phrase indicating a hopeless situation.
ah In chapter XVIII, an officer “spoke of the regiment as if he referred to a broom” that must clean the woods of Confederates. Crane perhaps developed this simile from the adage “a new broom sweeps clean.”
ai Meadow, which here does not provide cover from musket fire.
aj Military slang for infantrymen is mud crushers, which envisions men trudging through mud toward the front. Mud diggers thus is a disparaging term for infantrymen who refuse to move.
al Similar to jim-dandy, jimhickey means exceptional; since “hick” suggests an unsophisticated person, however, Fleming’s comrade suggests that fineness originates in one’s ordinariness rather than in affected airs.
am Sergeant who attends the company captain and performs messenger duties.
an American colloquialism for “I swear.”
ao A superior, excellent, or large example; a phrase popular in Crane’s time was to go ahead like a whale, which meant “to forge ahead.”
ap The upper edge of the dinghy’s side.
aq Slang for “a hurried escape”; variation of the more popular phrase a dose shave; here refers to abandoning the sinking Commodore.
ar Popular phrase that means “occurring regardless of human vohtion.”
as Cotton fabric with a fleecy nap on one side only; here Crane refers to the storm-disheveled plumage of the bird.
at Rope fastened to the bow of a boat, usually for tying it up to a dock or another vessel.
au The oarsman’s seat on the dinghy.
av City on the Seine River southwest of Paris.
aw Florida beach located about 4 miles south-southwest of the Mosquito Inlet Lighthouse.
ax Cheese is slang here for the essential quality of an object; just as cheese is cultivated from milk, so is the sacred essence of being (here manifested in the arousal of each man’s survival instinct) distilled from ordinary life.
ay Ninny means “simpleton” or “fool”; linguists believe it was derived from innocent. Crane here stresses how the universe does not follow a well-considered plan.
az Large, horse-drawn covered wagon used for public transportation.
ba variant of the Irish exclamation and lament wirra, which roughly translates as “O Mary.”
bb Vulgar for terrier, an ethnic slur directed at Irishmen.
bc Variation of a slang phrase meaning “stop that.”