Moses E. Delamarter was born around 1840 in Binghamton, New York, to Stephen W. Delamarter and Fannie E. Brigham. His father was a brickmaker who worked on the Chenango Canal in Greene, New York. The family owned $500 of personal property in 1860. Delamater grew up and attended school in Greene before beginning work as a brickmaker.
He enlisted in the Union army on August 9, 1862, and mustered in as a private in Company E of the 114th New York Infantry alongside his brother Sidney four days later. According to his service records, he was 5 feet, 5 inches tall, with brown hair and blue eyes.
The army stationed the men in Louisiana, and they took part in the Siege of Port Hudson in the summer of 1863. A year later, they were transferred to the Eastern Theater, and they fought in the Battle of Fort Stevens, the Third Battle of Winchester, the Battle of Fisher’s Hill, and the Battle of Cedar Creek. He was promoted to corporal in June 1864 and then to sergeant in November 1864. He mustered out on June 8, 1865.
Delamarter returned to Greene after the war, and he married Clarissa Birdsall there around 1868. They had at least five children: John, born around 1869; Frederick, born around 1871; Josephine, born around 1873; Leon, born around 1875; Elmer, born around 1877; and Mahlon, born around 1882. He worked as a brickmaker and a farmer, and by 1870, he owned $300 of personal property.
By 1880, he owned 44 acres of land: 30 “tilled” acres, 10 acres of “permanent pastures,” and 4 acres of “woodland and forest.” According to that year’s agricultural census, he produced 200 bushels of Indian corn, 150 bushels of oats, 23 bushels of wheat, and 100 bushels of potatoes.
He began suffering from kidney disease by the 1880s. He applied for a federal pension in June 1886 and eventually secured one. He remained in Greene for the rest of his life, and by 1910, he was working as a mail carrier there. He died in Greene around 1910.