Charles F. Palmeter was born on September 15, 1840, in Wisconsin to Silas Palmeter and Sarah Burdick. His father probably died around 1845. Palmeter eventually moved to Bradford, Iowa, and by 1860, he was working as a farm laborer and living in the household of Baptist minister A. B. Babcock.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on October 21, 1861, and mustered in as a private in Company B of the 7^th Iowa Infantry later that day. The regiment took part in the Battles of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, the Battle of Shiloh, the siege of Corinth, the Atlanta campaign, the March to the Sea, and the Carolinas campaign. He was promoted to corporal on December 1, 1864, and he mustered out on July 12, 1865.

 

Palmeter settled in Lafayette, Iowa, after the war and resumed his work as a farmer. He married Lydia Hurley on January 28, 1864, and they had at least three children: Marietta, born around 1866; William, born around 1868; and Charles F., born around 1874.

 

Lydia died around 1883, and he married Nancy Fisher on May 31, 1894. He applied for a federal pension in October 1891 and eventually secured one. The family moved to Locke, Indiana, sometime in the late 1890s, and he worked as a farmer there. They moved to Wakarusa, Indiana, in the 1910s, and he died there on February 19, 1922.

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