Jesse M. Carter was born around 1846 in Pennsylvania to Thomas and Ruhanna Carter. His father was a laborer who owned $125 of real estate and $220 of personal property by 1860. He grew up and attended school in Millsboro, Pennsylvania.
He enlisted in the Union army on September 4, 1862, and mustered in as a private in Company K of the 140th Pennsylvania Infantry later that day. The regiment took part in the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, and the siege of Petersburg. He was wounded in the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House on May 12, 1864, but he eventually recovered and rejoined the regiment. He mustered out on May 31, 1865. Carter returned to his parents’ household in Millsboro after the war. He never married, and he died sometime after 1880.