Upon the outbreak of the American Civil War, he helped fund a company for the 17th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, but they were not organized in time to enlist in the 17th.
He and the 35 men he had enlisted left for St. Louis, where they joined the 10th Wisconsin Light Artillery Battery,[2] with Carmichael becoming a private.
He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant in the newly-organized 37th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and served on recruiting and other detached service until he was discharged in October 1864, due to an illness (unspecified) from which he never fully recovered.
[14] As of 1890 he had apparently given up on the Democratic Party;[15] in that year, he ran for the Eau Claire Assembly seat again, as a Union Labor candidate, coming in third in a four-way race.
[17] In 1896 he was among the members of the Wisconsin unit of the Silver Party who supported the endorsement of the Democratic/Populist electoral fusion strategy and nomination of William Jennings Bryant.
The information was cabled to the United States, and the trio obtained court orders blocking any sale of lands in the Carmichael estate.