"Abner & Me" by Dan Gutman, Chapters 7–9

Young Stosh has time-traveled before…but this time he and his mom find themselves in the midst of the Battle of Gettysburg, searching for Abner Doubleday—a Civil War general. Stosh wants to find out for certain if Doubleday invented the game of baseball.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Chapters 1–6, Chapters 7–9, Chapter 10, Chapters 11–14, Chapters 15–19
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. haphazardly
    in a random manner
    For maybe half a second, I looked around. Mom was still next to me. We were outside, in a cemetery. Or at least there were some tombstones scattered around haphazardly.
  2. hunker
    squat, hunch, or crouch down
    Somebody was shooting at us.
    “Hit the dirt!” I shouted to Mom. She didn’t need to be told. We each hunkered down behind a tombstone.
  3. minimize
    make small or insignificant
    I tried to curl myself into a ball so I would take up the smallest possible surface area. I wanted to minimize the chances of one of those flying pieces of who-knows-what finding a part of me.
  4. hallucination
    illusory perception
    What was going on? This could not be happening. Maybe it was a bad dream or something. A hallucination. Maybe I would wake up in a few minutes and I’d be back home. I felt like I was thinking in slow motion.
  5. harpsichord
    a musical instrument with strings plucked by plectra
    I’m sure my mother had thought we would just drift peacefully back to 1863, like in a dream. We would open our eyes and be sitting in Abner Doubleday’s parlor at some fancy tea party. There would be people in old-time clothes playing violins and harpsichords, and people outside playing croquet. Like in those boring movies Mom likes so much.
  6. bombardment
    an attack by dropping explosive devices
    The bombardment went on and on. I didn’t know how long. I lost all concept of time. Maybe it was five minutes, maybe half an hour.
  7. excruciating
    extremely painful
    But I didn’t feel any excruciating pain anywhere, I’ll say that much.
  8. caliber
    diameter of a tube or gun barrel
    Before his accident, my dad taught me how to shoot a gun. It was an old .22 caliber Remington. He used to take me out to a field near our house for target practice. We’d shoot at cans and bottles and stuff.
  9. drone
    an aircraft without a pilot and operated by remote control
    I had to remind myself that this was 1863. No high-tech stuff. No helicopters. No night-vision goggles. No laser-guided smart bombs or drones.
  10. tattered
    worn to shreds; or wearing torn or ragged clothing
    As the Confederates got closer, I could see that only some of them were wearing military uniforms. Most were in tattered old clothes. Few of them had shoes. Some of them had rags wrapped around their feet.
  11. defiantly
    in a rebellious manner
    But all at once, the soldiers in gray stopped fighting and started to fall back. They didn’t run away. They walked away defiantly. It seemed important to them not to be seen running away.
  12. adrenaline
    hormone secreted by the adrenal gland in response to stress
    I don’t know if it’s adrenaline or some other chemical that rushes through your body in times of stress, but whatever it was made me feel really alive.
  13. blissful
    completely happy and contented
    We are marching to Gettysburg today, and the boys say we will meet General Lee’s army there. In the event that I fall, dear Molly, this letter shall serve as a reminder that my love for you is forever. I will never forget the blissful moments we spent together.
  14. hardtack
    very firm unsalted biscuit or bread
    We had a fine picnic. Joshua stuck something he called “salt beef” on to the end of his bayonet and held it over the fire to roast it. It was hard to chew, but okay. Willie and Little John contributed beans, rice, and some crackers they called “hardtack.” That stuff tasted like chalk.
  15. skedaddle
    run away, as if in a panic
    I kept standing up and peering over the ridge to be sure nobody was coming.
    “Sit yourself down,” Joshua said. “The Rebs skedaddled, and they’re lickin’ their wounds. They’d be crazy to attack us on this hill now.”
Created on Mon Feb 09 20:15:06 EST 2026 (updated Wed Feb 11 20:45:48 EST 2026)

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