[2][3] He was educated through private tutoring and attended the U.S. Military Academy, in West Point, New York (Class of 1833),[4] but resigned his appointment due to ill health.
[5] He went into medical practice at Jackson, East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana and continued to pursue an interest in the natural sciences.
[9][10] He joined the faculty of the Medical College of Louisiana as Professor of Botany and Geology, and from 1845-1846 he was Dean of the Tulane University School of Medicine.
[5] In early 1846, he met Sir Charles Lyell, who said of him: "His knowledge of botany and geology, as well as his amiable manners, made him a most useful and agreeable companion".
[11] His botanical collections were published posthumously and several plants were named in his honor, including the rare flowering California Bush Anemone, Carpenteria californica, which was "named in honour of Professor William M. Carpenter (1811-48), a physician from Louisiana, by its discoverer, Major General John Charles Fremont, who collected it on one of his four journeys of exploration in the extreme west of the United States between 1842 and 1848.