More On Oliver Dart, Jr.-- Part 4: The Wound

As the 14th Connecticut neared the railroad depot in Fredericksburg, they came under a galling artillery barrage from the Confederates and they took cover behind a high board fence which soon began to be battered.

Company D, Oliver Dart's unit, was down to 25 men by Fredericksburg, had  a shell burst in front of them and a 2-by-3-inch piece of the shell crashed into the ground, throwing dirt and gravel into the eyes of John Symon (Dart's brother-in-law) before crashing through the fence and striking Oliver in the face and right shoulder.

Corporal Charles Lyman later recalled that "the shell  fragment  would have ripped through Oliver's head had the fence not redirected it."  Sergeant Benjamin Hirst (Oliver's good friend), wrote  a letter to his wife, saying,  "Poor Oliver Dart... he looked as if his whole face  was shot away."

Dart was laid on the ground, unconscious, with Symonds next to him, blinded.  Four men, Sergeant George Brigham, Sergeant Hirst, Corporal Elbert Hyde and Private Kilbourne Newell helped the wounded men back to  the divisional field hospital at the Rowe House  along the Rappahonnock River