William
Carmack was born on January 5, 1761 in Frederick County Maryland.
At the age
of 27, Carmack joined George Rogers Clark expedition to Kaskaskia
located on the
Mississippi River in the Illinois
Wilderness. Clark had already played a major role in
Kentucky history. In June
1776, he got the
Virginia legislature to consider the
whole state of
Kentucky a
Virginia
County so that the
Kentucky frontier could receive
protection from the
Virginia militia against
Indian attacks along the frontier. This was important to the survival of
the
Kentucky frontier in 1777
when Indians began attacking the new settlements. 1777 was called the
Bloody 77 because more Indian attacks occurred that year than in any
other year in Kentucky History.
On June 26,
1778, Carmack left with 175 men under the command of George Rogers Clark
from
Redstone
VA to
Fort
Kaskaskia. They
arrived at Kaskaskia on July 4, 1778 and took the fort without firing a
shot. At Kaskaskia, they rang a bell in celebration. This bell is called
the Liberty Bell of the West and can be seen today at
Kaskaskia
State Park in
Illinois.
In January
1779, Carmack joined the VA militia under the command of Evan Shelby to
fight Indians. In April 1779, Carmack was part of an expedition against
a group of Cherokee Indians that lived near present day
Chattanooga
TN. There they burned 11
villages to the ground.
Later that
year in 1779, Carmack was sent to
Vincennes for guard duty.
Vincennes had been captured
by George Rogers Clark earlier that year in February 1779 without firing
a shot. Carmack was paroled in 1780.After the war, Carmack returned to
Washington
county
VA where he married
Mary Hartsock in 1783. From this union they would have 6 children. In
1789, Carmack moved to Lee
county
VA making them one
of the first pioneer families to move there.
In 1795
after Mary died Carmack moved back to
Washington
county
Va. Here he met
Mary Yeary and married her. Carmack moved back to
Lee
County
VA in 1797 where he
would live the rest of his life. In 1832, Carmack applied for a pension
for his revolutionary war service. On September 24, 1751 at the age of
90 years old Carmack would die and would be buried in Lee
county
VA.
During the
Civil war descendents of Carmack would fight for both the
Union and Confederates. There are 104
Carmack family members listed as fighting for the Confederates in VA and
41 Carmack family members fighting for the Union army in KY. The Civil
war would divide this family’s loyalty as it did thousands of other
families during the war. Today most of Carmack’s descendents live in the
Lee
county
VA region and
Bell
county
KY region.