With a face disfigured by war, this Union soldier’s life remained a near constant struggle
By: John Banks   December 14, 2017
A year after his regiment’s 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.
The resulting carte de visite, found in the 14th Connecticut veteran’s 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’ photographer. A mangled lower jaw, mouth, and nose — the awful effects of a shrapnel wound suffered during the attack on Marye’s Heights — are obvious. How Dart summoned the fortitude to sit for the CDV, undoubtedly evidence for his pension claim, is remarkable.
https://www.navytimes.com/veterans/2017/12/14/with-a-face-disfigured-by-war-this-union-soldiers-life-remained-a-near-constant-struggle/
