Historical records matching Pvt.(USA), Oliver Dart, Jr.
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About Pvt.(USA), Oliver Dart, Jr.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/136221860/oliver-dart
https://www.historynet.com/mangled-shell.htm?fbclid=IwAR02PZs0AkJ5y...
One of those iron demons fired from a mortar on high ground on the 14th Connecticut’s right burst among the prone soldiers in Company D. A 3- by 2-inch fragment smashed into the ground, firing sand into the eyes of 14th Connecticut Corporal John Symonds and blinding Private Dart’s brother-in-law. Then the deadly chunk of metal crashed into the arm and face of the 23-year-old Dart, before striking a 4-inch square wooden fence post. Corporal Charles Lyman, lying next to Dart, recalled years later that the fragment surely would have ripped through his head and killed him had it not struck that obstacle. When Sergeant Benjamin Hirst of Company D saw Dart’s wounds, he was aghast. “Poor Oliver Dart,” he said. “As he rolled over he looked as though his whole face was shot away.”
The unfortunate private was one of 92 men of the regiment wounded at Fredericksburg, along with 10 killed, and 20 missing. Dart was carried to a divisional hospital at the Rowe House on Sophia Street, where Henry Stevens, the 14th Connecticut’s regimental chaplain, was horrified by the carnage. “On the northern porch lay, among others, our Dart, his face torn off as though slashed away with a cleaver,” Stevens recalled, “and by his side lay Symonds, his eyes swollen with inflammation to the size of eggs, the sand grains showing through the tightly stretched and shining lids.”
In December 1863, Dart filed for a government pension; the application was approved, and he initially received $8 a month. In 1869, Oliver married his third wife, Aurelia Barber, with whom he had his only three children. In an attempt to cover up his grievous war wounds, he grew a bushy beard and mustache.
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Pvt.(USA), Oliver Dart, Jr.'s Timeline
| 1839 |
March 23, 1839
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Hartford, Ct, United States
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| 1879 |
August 11, 1879
Age 40
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Vernon, Tolland, Ct, United States
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