Warner (Warren) Carter was born March 1, 1841, in Albemarle County, Virginia, to William and Cornelia Carter. When he was one month old, a nurse let him fall into a fire, causing his foot and leg to be burned. He never fully recovered from this injury. His enslaver, John Coles Carter, migrated from Virginia to Missouri in 1852 and owned 126 slaves on multiple properties by the eve of the war. Warner Carter worked as a farmer and a laborer on one of these farms. He married his first wife, Priscilla Jackson Carter, in Lincoln County in December 1858.

Carter enlisted as a private at the age of 22 on December 10, 1863, in Troy, Missouri, and mustered in on December 18 at the Benton Barracks in St. Louis. His service describes him as 5 feet, 7 1/2 inches, with black hair, black eyes, and copper complexion. He served in Company A of the 65th USCT Infantry Regiment. In April 1864, he served detached duty at the provost. Throughout the war, Carter and the 65th USCT served in Louisiana. He mustered out on January 8, 1867, in Baton Rouge.

Following the war, Carter returned to Lincoln County. After 1881, he moved around Missouri, including to Pike County, Kansas City, and Curryville. He and his first wife Priscilla had thirteen children: Bell, Iona A., Abraham, Ellen, Alonzo, Lorenzo, Clarence, Leslie, Isaiah, Cary, Waida B., Jula, and Warner. Warner and Priscilla Carter had a sometimes strained marriage, with Warner claiming to have been "driven" from their home after his wife threatened him with "bodily harm." In a letter, Carter feared he would be "poisoned" if he ate food in their house. Priscilla Carter died on April 5, 1906. Carter then married his second wife, Maggie Graves, with whom he had one daughter: Alice, born on September 9, 1909. Alice died the following February, and Maggie and Warner later divorced on July 23, 1913. He then married his third wife, Sallie Caldwell, on August 17. Carter suffered from rheumatism, piles, and heart disease later in his life. He began receiving a pension of $15 per month in 1907, which was increased to $24 by the time he died on June 6, 1915, after complications of diabetes at the City Hospital in St. Louis. While Sallie was able to receive her husband's accrued pension, the pension bureau declined to give her her own pension as her marriage to Warner had taken place after June 27, 1905, and thus by law she did not qualify for pension relief.

Documents:

Warner Carter to the Commissioner of Pensions, November 13, 1905