{"id":17700,"date":"2017-12-14T18:08:40","date_gmt":"2017-12-14T18:08:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2017\/12\/14\/with-a-face-disfigured-by-war-this-union-soldiers-life-remained-a-near-constant-struggle\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T01:47:27","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T01:47:27","slug":"with-a-face-disfigured-by-war-this-union-soldiers-life-remained-a-near-constant-struggle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/veterans\/2017\/12\/14\/with-a-face-disfigured-by-war-this-union-soldiers-life-remained-a-near-constant-struggle\/","title":{"rendered":"With a face disfigured by war, this Union soldier\u2019s life remained a near constant struggle"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A year after his regiment\u2019s ill-fated charge at Fredericksburg on Dec. 13, 1862, Oliver Dart Jr. faced another great trial, sitting for a photograph at a studio on Main Street in Hartford, Conn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The resulting carte de visite, found in the 14th Connecticut veteran\u2019s pension file in the National Archives, is difficult to view. Bundled in a heavy coat, the blue-eyed veteran with black hair and thick eyebrows stares at the Kellogg Brothers\u2019 photographer. A mangled lower jaw, mouth, and nose \u2014 the awful effects of a shrapnel wound suffered during the attack on Marye\u2019s Heights \u2014 are obvious. How Dart summoned the fortitude to sit for the CDV, undoubtedly evidence for his pension claim, is remarkable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As he waited for his turn to be photographed that day, Dart\u2019s mind may have drifted off to the Battle of Fredericksburg. The 14th Connecticut was part of the 2nd Brigade, which included the 108th New York and the 130th Pennsylvania, in Brig. Gen. William F. French\u2019s 3rd Division of Maj. Gen. Darius Couch\u2019s 2nd Corps. The Nutmeggers crossed the pontoon bridges into Fredericksburg on Dec. 12 and spent the evening bivouacked in shell-torn and ransacked houses. The next day, French\u2019s division was ordered to make one of the first attacks against Marye\u2019s Heights. Marching onto the battlefield via Princess Anne Street, the 14th Connecticut came under \u201ca most galling fire\u201d after crossing a causeway over a canal near the railroad depot. The regiment was ordered to lie down before beginning their attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Even before the regiment rushed forward to try to overwhelm the Southern battle line at the base of Marye\u2019s Heights, it had to endure a storm of Confederate artillery fire that, according to Company B Lieutenant Henry Goddard, \u201cblackened the air for hours.\u201d Regimental historian Charles Page wrote that \u201cthe belching of two hundred pieces of artillery seemed to lift the earth from its foundation; shells screeched and burst in the air among the men as if possessed with demons and were seeking revenge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Read more from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.historynet.com\/\" class=\"selected-link\" title=\"\">HistoryNet<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.historynet.com\/the-gun-that-should-have-changed-everything.htm\" class=\"selected-link\" title=\"\">The Gun That Should Have Changed Everything<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.historynet.com\/arsenal-f-104c-starfighter.htm\" class=\"\">Arsenal | F-104C Starfighter<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.historynet.com\/curtiss-p-40-warhawk-one-of-ww-iis-most-famous-fighters.htm\" class=\"\" title=\"\" data-original-title=\"\" style=\"\">Curtiss P-40 Warhawk: One of WW II\u2019s Most Famous Fighters<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.historynet.com\/franklins-great-escape.htm\" class=\"\">Franklin\u2019s Great Escape<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of those iron demons fired from high ground on the 14th Connecticut\u2019s 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\u2019s 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\u2019s wounds, he was aghast. \u201cPoor Oliver Dart,\u201d he said. \u201cAs he rolled over he looked as though his whole face was shot away.\u201d<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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\u2019s regimental chaplain, was horrified by the carnage. \u201cOn the northern porch lay, among others, our Dart, his face torn off as though slashed away with a cleaver,\u201d Stevens recalled, \u201cand 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On the day after Christmas, Dart was admitted to Stanton General Hospital in Washington, one of scores of military hospitals in the capital city. His chances of recovery were considered slim; \u201cwounded in battle,\u201d a doctor there wrote, \u201cprobably mortally.\u201d When his older brother George, a farmer, visited Oliver at the hospital, he found conditions there deplorable. After five weeks in the Washington hospital, Dart was mercifully discharged from the Union Army and sent home to South Windsor. Miraculously recovering, he underwent an operation on his face at the home of his older brother, James. Oliver, the youngest of the six children of Amanda and Oliver Dart Sr., underwent a second procedure on his face at the home of his father in South Windsor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cGeorge Dart and his wife were almost constantly with their injured brother,\u201d a postwar account noted, \u201cand gave him every care and attention.\u201d For three months in the summer of 1863, Oliver also spent time at a soldier\u2019s home in Hartford, where he received sustenance from a special cup because of his terrible face wound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Dart-with-Beard.jpg.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-36701\" srcset=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Dart-with-Beard.jpg.jpg 600w, https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Dart-with-Beard.jpg.jpg?resize=300,200 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">In an attempt to cover up war wounds that left his face disfigured, Civil War veteran Oliver Dart Jr., of the 14th Connecticut, grew a bushy beard and mustache. (Courtesy of Frank Niederwerfer)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In June 1863, Oliver filed for divorce from his second wife, Maria, claiming \u201ca total neglect of all duties of marriage.\u201d Nearly three years later, the divorce was granted. (Maria was the sister of John Symonds, the soldier who was wounded next to Oliver at Fredericksburg.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn time he recovered,\u201d the postwar account noted, \u201cthough the wound was always visible and in later years his mind was somewhat affected, undoubtedly due to the shock and the suffering that ensued from the injury.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Life remained an almost constant struggle for the Civil War veteran. Dart was struck down with a case of consumption in the summer of 1879. Only 40 years old, he died on Aug. 11, 1879. He was buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Vernon, Conn., next to first wife, Emily, who died in 1860, and Aurelia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Connecticut resident John Banks works for ESPN. He is the author of Connecticut Yankees at Antietam, maintains John Banks\u2019 Civil War Blog, and is secretary-treasurer of The Center for Civil War Photography.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><i><i><\/i><\/i><i><i>This article was originally published in Civil War Times Magazine, a Military Times sister publication. For more information on Civil War Times Magazine, and all of the <i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.historynet.com\/\" title=\"\"><\/a>HistoryNet publications visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.historynet.com\" class=\"selected-link\" title=\"\">historynet.com<\/a>.<\/i><\/i><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A photo found in the National Archives reveals a blue-eyed veteran with black hair, thick eyebrows and a disfigured lower jaw, mouth, and nose \u2014 the awful effects of a shrapnel wound suffered during the Battle of Fredericksburg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":36698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":21,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,14,26,21],"tags":[],"coauthors":[4945],"class_list":["post-17700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-military-honor","category-newsletters","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"B2TYFJVD4VCSBNLED7H3K5JB5A","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2017\/12\/14\/with-a-face-disfigured-by-war-this-union-soldiers-life-remained-a-near-constant-struggle\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented 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