He served in the North Carolina Militia during the American Revolutionary War and as a delegate for Burke County to the Fayetteville Convention.
[4][5][6] He enlisted in March 1776 in the 2nd Rowan County Regiment under Captain William Moore, Reuben White and Joseph McDowell.
That same year, he served as Forage Master under General Griffith Rutherford, as a volunteer in William Moore's company of Col. Christopher Beekmans of the Rowan County Regiment, in the Cross Creek Expedition, and in a skirmish against a Cherokee siege in North Fork of the Catawba River.
In 1781, he was a forage master under Brigadier General Griffith Rutherford and Colonel Charles McDowell and was promoted to the rank of captain.
Carson represented Burke County in the Fayetteville Convention that ratified the United States Constitution in 1789.