Prior to the Civil war, Captain Marshall A. Carpenter was a woodworker in Vermont. In his diary, he describes building a house from January through August, 1862. He enlisted in the army on September 8, 1862, and organized a company at North Brookfield on September 11, 1862. He was mustered into federal service on October 22, 1862, and he spent the rest of the year near Washington D.C. On January 15, 1863 he was commissioned as a captain in Company C, 15th Infantry Regiment, Vermont Militia, and on April 15, 1865 he received his commission as a 2nd Lieutenant in the 7th Regiment, Vermont Militia.