arter joined the U. S. Navy at age 16, was a member of the Pacific Squadron during the war with Mexico, graduated from Annapolis in 1849, participated in expeditions to the Arctic, China Sea, and La Plata in South America until 1860, when he resigned and began service with the Confederate Navy. Following the Civil War, he returned home to Shirley plantation on the James River in Virginia where he lived as a planter until his death in 1888.