William J. Carter was born around 1840 in Frankfort, Indiana. His family moved to Hendricks County, Indiana, around 1843, and he attended Hanover College and Wabash College.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on August 12, 1862, and he mustered in as a private in Company F of the 79^th Indiana Infantry. The regiment took part in the Battle of Perryville, the Battle of Stones River, the Battle of Chickamauga, the Battle of Missionary Ridge, and the Atlanta campaign. He was promoted to 1^st lieutenant on March 23, 1863, and he also served as a hospital steward. He mustered out on October 14, 1864.

 

After leaving the army, he attended Rush Medical College in Chicago, Illinois. His health deteriorated in the late 1860s, and he moved to the New Mexico Territory to recover. He reportedly spent several years as a “contract surgeon among the Apache Indians.” He eventually moved to Marion, Indiana, and then to Joplin, Missouri, where he worked as a professor at a medical college. He applied for a federal pension in August 1882 and eventually received one.

 

He eventually settled in Indianapolis, Indiana, and he married a woman named Sarah. In the early 1900s, an Indiana writer described him as a “man of ability and high standing.” By the early 1920s, he was suffering from arteriosclerosis. He was admitted to the National Home for Disabled Volunteer soldiers in 1924, and he spent the next several years there. He died sometime after 1930.

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