William Darke

William Darke
Portrait of William Darke
Born	1736 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died	November 26, 1801 (aged 64–65) Jefferson County, Virginia
Buried	Ronemous Engle Cemetery, Jefferson County, West Virginia
Service / branch	Virginia militia, Continental Army
Years of service	1755, 1776–1781, 1784, 1791
Battles / wars	French and Indian War Braddock Expedition American Revolutionary War Battle of Germantown Northwest Indian War Battle of the Wabash

William Darke (1736 – November 26, 1801) was an American soldier who served with British forces before the Revolutionary War. He served with British regulars commanded by Major General Edward Braddock in his 1755 expedition to the French-controlled Ohio Valley, as part of the French and Indian War. The British forces were defeated and Braddock died.

Darke survived to be commissioned as a captain at the beginning of the American Revolutionary War. He was made prisoner at the Battle of Germantown. He was commanding colonel of the Hampshire and Berkeley regiments at the capture of General Cornwallis. Darke was often a member of the Virginia legislature and, during the convention of 1788, voted for the Federal Constitution.

As lieutenant-colonel of the regiment of "Levies" in 1791, he commanded the left wing of St. Clair's army at its defeat by the Miami Indians on November 4, 1791. He made two unsuccessful charges in that fight: his younger son, Captain Joseph Darke, died in the second, and he himself was wounded and barely survived. Darke wrote a letter to President George Washington that described the battle. Afterward, Darke served as a major-general of the Virginia militia.