// Get bitmap
            int bitLen = (obj.m_textureHeight * obj.m_textureWidth) * (obj.m_bpp / 8);
            byte[] bits = new byte[bitLen];

            bits = reader.ReadBytes(bitLen);
            reader.Close();

            D3D11.Texture2DDescription desc = new D3D11.Texture2DDescription()
            {
                ArraySize = 1,
                BindFlags = D3D11.BindFlags.ShaderResource,
                CpuAccessFlags = D3D11.CpuAccessFlags.Write,
                Format = DXGI.Format.B8G8R8A8_UNorm,
                Height = obj.m_textureHeight,
                MipLevels = 1,
                SampleDescription = new DXGI.SampleDescription(1, 0),
                Usage = D3D11.ResourceUsage.Dynamic,
                Width = obj.m_textureWidth

            };

            if (a_mipmapped)
            {
                desc.Usage = D3D11.ResourceUsage.Default;
                desc.CpuAccessFlags = D3D11.CpuAccessFlags.None;  // its none because we load the data into the texture as a full resource update, not update the contents after with map resource.
                desc.Format = DXGI.Format.R8G8B8A8_UNorm_SRgb;
                desc.MipLevels = 0;
                desc.OptionFlags = D3D11.ResourceOptionFlags.GenerateMipMaps;
                desc.SampleDescription.Count = 1;
                desc.SampleDescription.Quality = 0;
                desc.BindFlags = D3D11.BindFlags.RenderTarget | D3D11.BindFlags.ShaderResource;
            }

            if (desc.MipLevels != 0)
            {
                // if we arent doing mip maps, then load the resource directly
                DataStream buffer = new DataStream(obj.m_textureHeight * obj.m_textureWidth * 4, true, true);

                load24BitBitmapInto32BitTexture(bits, buffer, obj);

                DataRectangle rect = new DataRectangle(buffer.DataPointer, obj.m_textureWidth * 4);
                tex = new D3D11.Texture2D(m_device, desc, rect); /// this creates a texture and populates it,

                obj.m_d3dTexture = new D3D11.ShaderResourceView(m_device, tex);
            }
            else
            {
                tex = new D3D11.Texture2D(m_device, desc); /// we need to create a blank one then populate it with the mip mapped texture.

                int stride = obj.m_textureWidth * 4;
                var buffer = new DataStream(obj.m_textureHeight * stride, true, true);

                load24BitBitmapInto32BitTexture(bits, buffer, obj);

                DataBox box = new DataBox(buffer.DataPointer, stride, 1);

                m_device.ImmediateContext.UpdateSubresource(box, tex, D3D11.Resource.CalculateSubResourceIndex(0, 0, 4));

                buffer.Dispose();

                D3D11.ShaderResourceViewDescription srvDesc = new D3D11.ShaderResourceViewDescription();
                srvDesc.Format = desc.Format;
                srvDesc.Dimension = SharpDX.Direct3D.ShaderResourceViewDimension.Texture2D;
                srvDesc.Texture2D.MostDetailedMip = 0;
                srvDesc.Texture2D.MipLevels = -1;

                obj.m_d3dTexture = new D3D11.ShaderResourceView(m_device, tex, srvDesc);
            }

            if (a_mipmapped)
            {
                m_context.GenerateMips(obj.m_d3dTexture);
            }

This is in Sharpdx and c# but this can be a mip mapped or non mip mapped texture. Up to you.

Just change your char to a byte array and voila

You can just look at the tail end of the WIC texture loader from DirectXTex for an example.