The Battle of Fredericksburg: The 14th Connecticut and Sad Case of Oliver Dart, Jr.

Tomorrow, the McHenry County Civil War Round Table will have its monthly discussion group meeting about the Battle of Fredericksburg at Panera Bread in Crystal Lake, Illinois.

I was doing some catch-up reading in the February 2018 Civil War Times magazine recently and came across an article about Oliver Dart, Jr. whose face was essentially destroyed by the explosion of a Confederate shell "Mangled By a Shell."

He was in the 14th Connecticut, a regiment that fought in most every battle of the Army of the Potomac after its organization in August 22, 1862.  His regiment participated in the Union charge upon Marye's Heights, but he wasn't in it.  While waiting to attack, his unit and others came under heavy Confederate cannon fire and a 3-by-two-inch shell fragment blinded his brother-in-law and had it not then struck a four-inch square fence post, probably would have killed another soldier.

His comrades thought that Dart was going to die, but he somehow recovered, but had a ghastly wound on his face from his nose to jaw. for the remainder of his life.  he partially covered it with a full beard.

I will be talking about him and the 14th Connectcut's service at the meeting.

--Old Secesh