Robert Carter (Jackson) was born around April 1842 in Albemarle County, Virginia, to Addison and Lucy Jackson. His enslaver, John Coles Carter, migrated from Virginia to Missouri in 1852 and owned 126 slaves on multiple farms by the eve of the war. Robert Carter lived on Lick Farm in Lincoln County, where he worked as a farmer. Sometime in 1863, he ran away to enlist in the Union army. After his escape, John Coles Carter kicked the family off his land, insisting that they "belonged to Abe Lincoln now." 

Carter enlisted as a private at the age of 21 on December 10, 1863, in Troy, Missouri, and mustered in at the Benton Barracks in St. Louis on December 18. His service record describes him as 5 feet, 6 inches tall, with black eyes, black hair, and black complexion. He served in Company A of the 65th USCT Infantry Regiment. Carter only served briefly, as he fell ill in the spring of 1864. He died of chronic diarrhea in the regimental hospital in Port Hudson, Louisiana, on June 15, 1864. According to his pension record, he told a Lewis Cobb, probably actually Lewis Carter, to send $5 he had hidden under the pillow of his deathbed to his mother in Missouri.

Following the war, his mother Lucy Jackson was able to receive a pension of $10 per month beginning in 1890. Jackson continued to draw the pension of until her death in 1895.

Documents: 

Pension Records for Robert Carter's Mother, Lucy Jackson