Dade County History Book

THE CARMICHAEL FAMILY

Nicholas Hebron and Rachel Evelyn Varnon Carmichael were residents of Dade County during the Civil War. Their children Mary Elizabeth born 1848, John born 1850, Arabella “Kitty” 1852, and Crockett Nicholas born 1858. Mary Elizabeth remembered the soldiers coming through all day at such a pace that the young children could not cross the road to get home. She also remembered sounds of guns at the Battle of Chickamauga. Their men folks were in the service and the women and children were cared for by the negroes who refused to leave them. When Sherman made his march to the sea, they boarded freight cars and refugeed to the south. She said an epidemic of smallpox killed many of the children and adults in these cars. The scarcity of food was an ever present reminder that they had to leave their homes.

Once during the war, Union Soldiers stole the “Little General” from the depot in Chattanooga, it being a small wood burning engine ran out of fuel at the edge of their meadow. The soldiers left the engine and came to the Carmichael home for horses and food. This family had earlier learned to bury every item they wished to keep or use. At times the Union soldiers stole their horses and would burn whatever was left that they did not need.

Part of our heart is in Dade County. The early settlers suffered so during reconstruction days that Hebron and Rachel Carmichael and their younger children moved to Texas in 1870 by way of New Orleans and Indianola, Texas and purchased ranch land in Zaoola County, Texas. This ranch is still in the Carmichael family and name, and is operated by Michael Howett, the only grandson of Crockett Nicholas Carmichael.

This material was given by Marjorie Carl McWilliams, granddaughter of James Montroville and Mary Elizabeth Carmichael Sutton.

Information given by Sarah Tittle Parker. (Used by permission HISTORY OF DADE COUNTY GEORGIA, Retired Senior Volunteer Program, 1981)