[1] He is considered one of the state's most popular political figures of the 1820s, and is credited with initiating numerous legal and tax reforms.

His father, Thomas Carroll, was a business associate of Albert Gallatin, and had established a successful chain of hardware stores in the Pittsburgh area.

William Carroll had little formal education as a child, but acquired practical learning from working in his father's business.

[4] At the outbreak of the War of 1812, Carroll was appointed captain of the Nashville Uniform Volunteers, and joined Andrew Jackson's Creek campaign.

Traveling via the Cumberland, Ohio and Mississippi rivers, his new troops arrived in New Orleans just prior to the British invasion.

At the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815, Carroll's troops fought near the center of Jackson's line, where some of the most intense fighting occurred.

On March 11, 1819, after a treacherous journey up the Mississippi, Ohio and Cumberland rivers, the General Jackson became the first steamboat to reach Nashville.

Although his opponent, Edward Ward, was backed by the state's political elite, including Andrew Jackson, Hugh Lawson White and Joseph McMinn, Carroll gained the support of Jackson foes John Williams and Davy Crockett, and was able to harness the anti-establishment sentiment that had arisen in the wake of the financial crisis.

He immediately set out to reform the state's tax laws, but his call for a constitutional convention was defeated by the legislature.

Houston resigned following a scandal shortly after Carroll announced his campaign, however, and William Hall, as Speaker of the Senate, succeeded him.

He was doomed by rising Whig sentiment in the state, however, and lost the gubernatorial election to Newton Cannon by a vote of 41,970 to 31,205.