John Louis Lanterman was born around 1842 in Illinois to Abram Lanterman and Catherine Cabanis. His father was a farmer who owned $500 of personal property by 1860. The family moved to Grant County, Wisconsin, in the 1840s and then moved to Menard County, Illinois, in the 1850s. By 1860, Lanterman was working as a farm laborer in Menard County.
He enlisted in the Union army on August 11, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company I of the 25th Wisconsin Infantry. The regiment took part in the Dakota War of 1862 and the siege of Vicksburg. He died of disease in Memphis, Tennessee, on October 31, 1863.