Mangled By a Shell-- Part 4: Suffered From Wound the Rest of His Life

In December 1863, Oliver Dart filed for a government pension and was approved, initially receiving $8 a month.

In 1869, he married his third wife, Aurelia Barber and they had three children.

In an attempt to cover up his grievous war wound, he grew a bushy beard and mustache.

A postwar account noted:  "In time he recovered though the wound was always visible and in later years his mind was somewhat affected, undoubtedly due  to the shock and the suffering caused from the injury.

Life for Dart remained a near-constant struggle until he was struck down with a case of consumption in the summer of 1879.  He was only 40 years old when he died on August 11, 1879 and is buried in Elmwood Cemetery in Vernon, Connecticut, next to his first wife Emily, who died in 1860 and Aurelia.

--Old Secesh