DAVID MILLER CARTER was born, January 12th, 1830, in Hyde county, N. C. The Carter family came originally from the borders of Maryland and Virginia, and settled in North Carolina at the close of the Revolutionary war. Captain Peter Carter, an officer of the Revolution, was a member of the family. David Carter, the grandfather of the subject of this sketch, was for twenty years a member of the Legislature of North Carolina, and Chairman of the County Court of Hyde county. David Carter, his father, had large cotton and corn plantations, and was a leading man in his district, being largely interested in canalling and internal improvements. He represented Beaufort and Hyde counties in the State Senate in 1846-47, and married Sarah Lindsay Spencer, a descendant of an old family of English extraction, who were among the first settlers in that part of the State.
D. M. Carter was prepared for college under J. M. Lovejoy, at the Raleigh Academy, an educational establishment of considerable note at that time. He entered the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, in 1847, and graduated from there with distinction in 1851. B. S. Hedrick, of Washington City, Bartholomew Fuller, of Fayetteville, and F. E. Schober, member of Congress, were among his classmates. He read law under Judge W. H. Battle while at the university, and in January, 1852, received his county court license. He remained at the university six months after graduation, pursuing the study of law, and, receiving his Supreme Court license in January, 1853, entered into partnership with the Hon. Richard S. Donnell, a distinguished lawyer, at Washington, N. C.
In 1853 Mr. Carter was engaged in a trial for murder, which created intense excitement at the time, which was heightened by its tragic termination—The State vs.The Rev. G. W. Carrowan for the murder of a schoolmaster, who was waylaid and shot from behind a hedge, presumably for revenge. The body was, after a prolonged search, found buried in a swamp, beneath some of the carpet-like moss which grows luxuriantly in that part of the country. Mr. Carter, assisted by Judge Warren, prosecuted, and the prisoner was found guilty. As soon as the verdict was given, the prisoner took a pistol from his pocket and fired at Judge Warren, hitting him in the breast, and then, despite the efforts of the sheriff to prevent him, blew his own brains out. Mr. Carter prepared the case, but was not in the court-house at the time of the shooting of Judge Warren, who afterwards recovered. He was appointed Solicitor for the County of Hyde in 1853, and held that office a number of years. In the early part of 1861 he was elected a member of a convention to consider the question of secession, but the call was not ratified by the people, and consequently the convention never met. Mr. Carter declined election to the second convention, which passed the ordinance of secession. On the issue of President Lincoln's proclamation, he was elected Captain of Company E, Fourth North Carolina Regiment, and went into active service in northern Virginia. At the battle of Seven Pines (Fair Oaks), where his regiment was almost annihilated, he was badly, and at the time supposed fatally, wounded, and was disabled from duty for many months. From that battle he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel of the Fourth North Carolina Regiment, and in December, 1862, was appointed Military Judge at General T. J. Jackson's ("Stonewall") First Corps head-quarters, and remained in that service until the death of General Jackson. On the reorganization of the army he was promoted to Presiding Judge at General A. P. Hill's Third Army Corps head-quarters. He was elected a member of the Legislature of North Carolina, August, 1862, and after the battle of Gettysburg was a zealous advocate for peace. He took an active part in all the discussions on the habeas corpus question, and was an earnest advocate for holding to its integrity. In January, 1865, as a member of the Legislature, he was appointed, with the Hon. John Poole, since Senator, Judge Pirson and Colonel E. D. Hall, on a secret mission to President Davis, for the purpose of representing the views of the people of North Carolina on the war question, and ascertaining the true condition of the Confederacy, and were in consultation with the President on the same day that Alexander H. Stephens, Judge Campbell and Hon. R. M. T. Hunter were on board the United States man-of-war in Hampton Roads, in consultation with President Lincoln and Mr. Seward. They returned to Raleigh and reported to the Legislature, who were then on the point of adjournment never to meet again. It is probable that before long the true inwardness of this secret mission will be made public, Colonel Carter having been repeatedly urged to make the facts known.
In 1867 he was elected a member of the State Senate for Beaufort and Hyde counties. In 1866 he resumed the practice of his profession at Washington, N. C., and his former partner, the Hon. R. S. Donnell, having died, in 1868 he associated himself with Judge Warren, who had been displaced from the Bench as Washington by the Reconstruction acts. In 1872 Colonel Carter was the Democratic candidate for Congress for that district, but was defeated by Mr. Cobb. When Congress passed the Civil Rights bill, in 1873, it produced a revolution and seriously embarrassed the Republican party, and caused their defeat in the State. They have never secured a representative since except in a negro district where the colored voters are in a majority of 5,000 or 6,000. In 1874 he removed to Raleigh, for the superior education advantages it offered to his children, where he continues to practice of his profession, principally in the First and Second Circuit Courts and in the Supreme Court. He has for years been extensively engaged in canalling and developing the swamp lands in the eastern part of the State. He is a Director of the Raleigh National Bank, Director of the Home Insurance Company, President of the Board of Directors of the Penitentiary, Trustee and member of the Executive Committee of the University of North Carolina, and Chairman of the Board of Commissioners appointed by the Legislature to build the Executive Mansion.
Colonel Carter is an able lawyer, and if he would give his entire time to the practice of his profession he would acquire great distinction therein; but, being a man of large estate, he necessarily devotes much of his time to attending to and improving it. He is a cogent and powerful reasoner, a clear and impressive speaker, and has the confidence of all parties as a man of the most sterling integrity. His social qualities are of the first order; beloved by his family, kind to the poor, grappling his numerous friends to him by his fidelity and ingenuousness of his disposition, he is in many respects a model North Carolinian.
He married, in April, 1858, Miss Isabella Perry, daughter of David B. Perry, an extensive planter of Beaufort county, N. C., who died in January, 1866. In May, 1868 he was married a second time, to Mrs. Banbury, widow of Captain John A. Banbury, planter, of Edenton, N. C.
SOURCE: Representative Men of the South. Philadelphia: Chas. Robson & Co., 1880, Page 418-20.
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