William Holland Thomas
Encyclopedia
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians , is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the United States of America, who are descended from Cherokee who remained in the Eastern United States while others moved, or were forced to relocate, to the west in the 19th century. The history of the...
(the only white man ever to be a chief of the Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
s) and an officer in the Confederate States Army
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
.
Becoming Cherokee at heart
Thomas was born to Richard Thomas and his wife Temperance (Calvert) Thomas in a log house on Raccoon CreekRaccoon Creek
Raccoon Creek may refer to:*Raccoon Creek, a tributary of the Coosa River in Alabama*Raccoon Creek , a tributary of the Etowah River*Raccoon Creek, a tributary of the Elm River...
, two miles (3 km) east of Mount Prospect, later called Waynesville, North Carolina
Waynesville, North Carolina
Waynesville is a town in and the county seat of Haywood County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest town in Haywood County and the largest in Western North Carolina west of Asheville. Waynesville is located about or 50 km southwest of Asheville between the Great Smoky and Blue...
. He was related to the Calvert family, the founders of the colony of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, through his mother, the grandniece of Lord Baltimore, and to President Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor was the 12th President of the United States and an American military leader. Initially uninterested in politics, Taylor nonetheless ran as a Whig in the 1848 presidential election, defeating Lewis Cass...
on his father’s side.
Thomas’ father drowned shortly before his son's birth. As a teen, Thomas was employed by US Congressman Felix Walker
Felix Walker (American politician)
Felix Walker was a Democratic-Republican U.S. Congressman from North Carolina between 1817 and 1823.Walker was born near the Potomac River in what was then Hampshire County, Virginia, now part of West Virginia...
as a clerk at a trading post in Qualla Town. Thomas signed a three-year contract in return for $100, board, and clothing. He quickly became friends with the Cherokee
Cherokee
The Cherokee are a Native American people historically settled in the Southeastern United States . Linguistically, they are part of the Iroquoian language family...
s, learning their language, and was adopted into the tribe by Chief Yonaguska
Yonaguska
Yonaguska, who was also known as Drowning Bear , was a figure of persistence and endurance in the story of the Cherokee. He was a reformer who banished alcoholic drinks from his land and his people after receiving a vision warning him to do so. Yonaguska challenged Rev...
, who gave him the Cherokee name “Will-usdi” (“Little Will”).
In about 1820 Felix Walker was forced to close his stores; since he was unable to pay Thomas what he owed him, he gave him a set of law books. At the time there were no bar exams, and anyone who read law was allowed to practice. Thomas became well-versed in frontier law and in 1831 was asked by Yonaguska to become the Cherokees’ legal representative.
Thomas opened his own trading post for the Qualla Town Cherokee, and later opened several other trading posts in Western North Carolina.
Coming forth for his people
In 1835 when the Treaty of New EchotaTreaty of New Echota
The Treaty of New Echota was a treaty signed on December 29, 1835, in New Echota, Georgia by officials of the United States government and representatives of a minority Cherokee political faction, known as the Treaty Party...
was being negotiated, Thomas had his first real opportunity to represent the Cherokees legally. Some Cherokees had received reservations of 640 acres (2.6 km²) by an earlier treaty and no longer resided in what was considered the Cherokee Nation
Cherokee Nation
The Cherokee Nation is the largest of three Cherokee federally recognized tribes in the United States. It was established in the 20th century, and includes people descended from members of the old Cherokee Nation who relocated voluntarily from the Southeast to Indian Territory and Cherokees who...
. Although, technically, the treaty should not apply to them, still the Qualla Cherokees were apprehensive. Seeking assurances, the “reservation
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
” Cherokees and some others asked Thomas to represent them in Washington, D.C. There, Thomas was able to get acknowledgment of the right of a number of Cherokees to remain in North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
, and these Cherokees became the core of the present-day Eastern Band
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians , is a federally recognized Native American tribe in the United States of America, who are descended from Cherokee who remained in the Eastern United States while others moved, or were forced to relocate, to the west in the 19th century. The history of the...
. In 1839, just before he died, Yonaguska persuaded the Cherokees to accept his adopted son as their chief. During the 1840s and 1850s Thomas was constantly trying to secure recognition of Cherokees as citizens of North Carolina. He also used Cherokee money, as well as his own, to purchase land for them in his name. Today his purchases constitute much of the Qualla Boundary
Qualla Boundary
The Qualla Boundary is the territory where the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians reside in western North Carolina.-Location:...
, and the various sections (Paint Town, Bird Town, Yellow Hill, Big Cove and Wolf Town) were named by Thomas. In 1848, he was elected state senator, and he was re-elected every two years through 1860.
Civil War involvement
When the Civil War broke out and Thomas realized that neutrality was impossible, he agreed to organize the Cherokee to serve the ConfederacyConfederate States of America
The Confederate States of America was a government set up from 1861 to 1865 by 11 Southern slave states of the United States of America that had declared their secession from the U.S...
. The 400 men he recruited to form two Cherokee companies, along with six companies of white North Carolinians, comprised the famous Thomas' Legion of Cherokee Indians and Highlanders
Thomas' Legion
Thomas' Legion, also known as Thomas' Legion of Cherokee Indians and Highlanders, Thomas' Legion of Indians and Highlanders, and the 69th North Carolina Regiment, was a unit of the Confederate Army in the American Civil War...
, operating as an independent command directly under the Confederate Army
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
's Department of East Tennessee. The Legion operated primarily in East Tennessee
East Tennessee
East Tennessee is a name given to approximately the eastern third of the U.S. state of Tennessee, one of the three Grand Divisions of Tennessee defined in state law. East Tennessee consists of 33 counties, 30 located within the Eastern Time Zone and three counties in the Central Time Zone, namely...
and Western North Carolina
Western North Carolina
Western North Carolina is the region of North Carolina which includes the Appalachian Mountains, thus it is often known geographically as the state's Mountain Region. It is sometimes included with upstate South Carolina as the "Western Carolinas", which is also counted as a single media market...
, except for a short period when they were deployed to the Shenandoah Valley
Shenandoah Valley
The Shenandoah Valley is both a geographic valley and cultural region of western Virginia and West Virginia in the United States. The valley is bounded to the east by the Blue Ridge Mountains, to the west by the eastern front of the Ridge-and-Valley Appalachians , to the north by the Potomac River...
.
Thomas' Legion was North Carolina's sole legion and was never actually defeated by Union troops. By May 1865, the main Confederate armies has surrendered and Union
Union (American Civil War)
During the American Civil War, the Union was a name used to refer to the federal government of the United States, which was supported by the twenty free states and five border slave states. It was opposed by 11 southern slave states that had declared a secession to join together to form the...
soldiers controlled Waynesville and the rest of Western North Carolina.
On May 6, 1865, Thomas' Legion fired "The Last Shot" of the Civil War east of the Mississippi River in an action at White Sulphur Springs, North Carolina. It had the distinction of capturing a city (Waynesville
Waynesville, North Carolina
Waynesville is a town in and the county seat of Haywood County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest town in Haywood County and the largest in Western North Carolina west of Asheville. Waynesville is located about or 50 km southwest of Asheville between the Great Smoky and Blue...
), then voluntarily ceasing hostilities. Ironically, the Legion was actually forced to capture the city in order to surrender.
Colonel Thomas and his Legion controlled the mountains surrounding Waynesville, and during the night of May 5, 1865, built hundreds of campfires to make the Union garrison think that thousands of Cherokees and Confederates were about to attack them. The Cherokees punctuated the nights with “chilling warhoops” and “hideous yells,” according to a Union report, firing occasional shots to improve the effect. The next morning Thomas and about 20 Cherokees entered Waynesville under a flag of truce to demand the garrison surrender. It reluctantly did so. On May 9, 1865, however, after a Union officer told Thomas that Robert E. Lee had surrendered his army one month earlier, Colonel Thomas reluctantly agreed to lay down his arms. The Civil War was by then over, and the last shots in North Carolina were those fired in Waynesville.
The aftermath
After the war, William Holland Thomas went home to his wife, Sarah Love Thomas, their three children, and those Cherokees who still looked to him as chief. He received a pardon from President Andrew JohnsonAndrew Johnson
Andrew Johnson was the 17th President of the United States . As Vice-President of the United States in 1865, he succeeded Abraham Lincoln following the latter's assassination. Johnson then presided over the initial and contentious Reconstruction era of the United States following the American...
in 1866 and hoped to reenter politics and business. Thomas's mental condition began to deteriorate, however. According to historians John Ehle (The Trail of Tears), Matthew D. Parker, and Vernon H. Crow (Storm in the Mountains: Thomas' Confederate Legion of Cherokee Indians and Mountaineers), Thomas may have been suffering from what was later known as Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease also known in medical literature as Alzheimer disease is the most common form of dementia. There is no cure for the disease, which worsens as it progresses, and eventually leads to death...
. He soon found himself hopelessly in debt. Compounding his worries was the responsibility to care for his beloved Cherokee, who faced a devastating smallpox epidemic after the war. In March 1867, Thomas was declared insane and placed in a state institution in Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh, North Carolina
Raleigh is the capital and the second largest city in the state of North Carolina as well as the seat of Wake County. Raleigh is known as the "City of Oaks" for its many oak trees. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city's 2010 population was 403,892, over an area of , making Raleigh...
. From then until the end of his life, Thomas lived in and out of mental hospitals. In 1887 Thomas assisted Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution
The Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its retail operations, concessions, licensing activities, and magazines...
ethnologist James Mooney
James Mooney
James Mooney was an American ethnographer who lived for several years among the Cherokee. He did major studies of Southeastern Indians, as well as those on the Great Plains...
when he went to western North Carolina to gather information on the Cherokee.
Death and legacy
William Holland Thomas died in the state mental hospital in Morganton, North CarolinaMorganton, North Carolina
Morganton is a city in Burke County, North Carolina, United States. Reader's Digest included Morganton in its list of top ten places to raise a family. The town was recently profiled in The 50 Best Small Southern Towns. The population was 17,310 at the 2000 census...
(Burke County, North Carolina
Burke County, North Carolina
-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 89,148 people, 34,528 households, and 24,342 families residing in the county. The population density was 176 people per square mile . There were 37,427 housing units at an average density of 74 per square mile...
) and was buried on a hilltop in Waynesville, North Carolina
Waynesville, North Carolina
Waynesville is a town in and the county seat of Haywood County, North Carolina, United States. It is the largest town in Haywood County and the largest in Western North Carolina west of Asheville. Waynesville is located about or 50 km southwest of Asheville between the Great Smoky and Blue...
. He is remembered today in the outdoor drama Unto These Hills
Unto These Hills
Unto These Hills is an outdoor historical drama staged annually at the 2800-seat Mountainside Theatre in Cherokee, North Carolina. It is the second oldest outdoor historical drama in the United States, after The Lost Colony in Manteo, North Carolina...
, and the Museum of the Cherokee Indian displays the battle flag of Thomas's Legion as part of the Cherokee heritage.
Fictional accounts
Will Cooper, the main character in Charles FrazierCharles Frazier
Charles Frazier is an award-winning American historical novelist.Frazier was born in Asheville, North Carolina, and graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1973. He earned an M.A. from Appalachian State University in the mid-1970s, and received his Ph.D. in English from the University...
's 2006 novel Thirteen Moons, is based in part on William Holland Thomas. In the Author's Note at the end of the novel, Frazier states that Will Cooper is not William Holland Thomas, "although they do share some DNA." Frazier also wrote the novel Cold Mountain
Cold Mountain (novel)
Cold Mountain is a 1997 historical fiction novel by Charles Frazier. It tells the story of W. P. Inman, a wounded deserter from the Confederate army near the end of the American Civil War who walks for months to return to Ada Monroe, the love of his life; the story shares several similarities with...
, which won the 1997 National Book Award
National Book Award
The National Book Awards are a set of American literary awards. Started in 1950, the Awards are presented annually to American authors for literature published in the current year. In 1989 the National Book Foundation, a nonprofit organization which now oversees and manages the National Book...
.