William Richard Carter was born on April 22, 1833, in Nottoway County, Virginia, to Sharpe and Martha Carter. His father was a teacher and farmer who owned $5,360 of real estate and $12,825 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Nottoway County, Virginia, and he graduated from Hampden-Sydney College in 1852.

 

In February 1853, he began working as a teacher at the Flat Rock Female Seminary in Lunenburg County, Virginia. Three years later, he unsuccessfully applied for a job as a mathematics professor at Hampden-Sydney. According to one biographer, his fiancée broke off their engagement soon afterward, and he “resorted to drink for a time before deciding to seek his fortune in the West.” He moved to Columbus, Mississippi, in the late 1850s and became the “proprietor and principal” of a high school. He sold the school in early 1860 and returned to Nottoway County. He was admitted to the Virginia bar in April 1861.  

 

He enlisted in the Confederate army on May 27, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company E of the 3^rd Virginia Cavalry. The regiment took part in the Peninsula campaign, the Seven Days’ Battles, the Second Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, and the Overland Campaign. Union forces captured him at the Battle of Big Bethel on June 10, 1861, and imprisoned him in Fortress Monroe. He was exchanged twelve days later.

 

He was promoted to 1^st lieutenant in November 1861, to captain in January 1862, to major in October 1862, and finally to lieutenant colonel in November 1862. He was wounded at the Battle of Trevilian Station in June 1864, and he died in Gordonsville, Virginia, on July 8, 1864.

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