William Holland Thomas William Holland Thomas ( February 5 , 1805 – May 10 , 1893 ) was Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians ( the only white man ever to be a chief of the Cherokee ) and was elected as North Carolina state senator , serving from 1848 - 1860 . As a youth , he worked at the trading post at Qualla Town , where he learned the Cherokee language and befriended some of the people . He was adopted into the tribe by the chief Yonaguska , learned much of the Cherokee ways , and was named by the chief as his successor . After becoming an attorney , Thomas represented the tribe in negotiations with the federal government related to Indian Removal , preserving the right for Yonaguska and other Cherokee to stay in North Carolina after the 1830s . With his own and Cherokee funds , he bought land in North Carolina to be used by the Cherokee , much of which is now Qualla Boundary , the territory of the federally recognized Eastern Band of Cherokee . Thomas served as a colonel in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War , when he led Thomas ' Legion of Cherokee Indians and Highlanders Adopted by Cherokee . Thomas was born to Richard Thomas and his wife Temperance ( Calvert ) Thomas in a log house on Raccoon Creek , two miles ( 3 km ) east of Mount Prospect , later called Waynesville , North Carolina . ( He was related to the Calvert family , the founders of the colony of Maryland , through his mother , the grandniece of Lord Baltimore , and to President Zachary Taylor on his father ’ s side . ) Thomas ’ father drowned shortly before his son ' s birth . As a youth , Thomas worked for the US Congressman Felix Walker as a clerk at a trading post in Qualla Town , a center of the Cherokee . Thomas signed a three - year contract in return for $ 100 , board , and clothing . He quickly became friends with the Cherokee and learned their language . He was adopted into the tribe by Chief Yonaguska , 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 the youth a set of law books . At the time there were no bar exams , and anyone who read law ( generally with an established firm ) was allowed to practice . Thomas became well - versed in frontier law . In 1831 Yonaguska asked him 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 . Marriage and family . Thomas married Sarah Love and they had three surviving children together . Negotiating for the Cherokee . In 1835 as some Cherokee were negotiating the Treaty of New Echota with the federal government to arrange for exchange of lands in Indian Removal , the Eastern Band asked Thomas to represent them . His adopted father and other Cherokee had received land reservations of by an earlier treaty and no longer resided in what was considered the Cherokee Nation . Although technically the New Echota treaty should not apply to them , the Qualla Cherokee were apprehensive . Seeking assurances , the “ reservation ” Cherokee and some others asked Thomas to represent them in Washington , D . C . Thomas negotiated for numerous Cherokee to remain in North Carolina , including his adopted father Yonaguska . They became the core ancestors of the present - day Eastern Band , a federally recognized tribe . In 1839 , just before he died , Yonaguska persuaded the Cherokee to accept his adopted son as their chief . During the 1840s and 1850s , Thomas worked to gain recognition of the Cherokee as citizens of North Carolina . He used Cherokee money , as well as his own , to purchase land for them in his name . At the time , Cherokee were prohibited from owning land outside the Indian Territory . His purchases became the basis of much of the Qualla Boundary , and he named the various sections : Paint Town , Bird Town , Yellow Hill , Big Cove and Wolf Town . In 1848 , Thomas was elected as a state senator ; he was re - elected every two years through 1860 . Civil War . When the Civil War broke out and Thomas realized that neutrality was impossible , he agreed to organize the Cherokee to support the Confederacy . The 400 warriors he recruited formed two Cherokee companies ; together with six companies of white men , many of whom were ethnic Scots - Irish , they comprised the famous Thomas ' Legion of Cherokee Indians and Highlanders . It operated as an independent command directly under the Confederate Army ' s Department of East Tennessee . The Legion operated primarily in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina , except for a short period when they were deployed to the Shenandoah Valley . Thomas ' Legion was North Carolina ' s sole legion ; it was never defeated by Union troops . By May 1865 , the main Confederate armies has surrendered and Union 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 . After his legion captured Waynesville , they voluntarily ceased hostilities upon learning of General Robert E . Lee ' s surrender and the end of the war . Colonel Thomas and his Legion controlled the mountains surrounding Waynesville . During the night of May 5 , 1865 , they built hundreds of campfires to make the Union garrison think that thousands of Cherokee and Confederates were about to attack them . The Cherokee punctuated the nights with “ chilling warwhoops ” and “ hideous yells , ” according to a Union report , firing occasional shots to improve the effect . The next morning Thomas and about 20 Cherokee entered Waynesville under a flag of truce to demand the surrender of the garrison . The Union troops did so . On May 9 , 1865 , however , a Union officer told Thomas that General Robert E . Lee had surrendered his army one month earlier , and the colonel agreed to lay down his arms . The Civil War was over , and the last shots in North Carolina were those fired in Waynesville . Postbellum years . After the war , Thomas went home to his family and those Cherokee who still looked to him as chief . In 1866 , he received a pardon from President Andrew Johnson , after which he hoped to reenter politics and business . Thomas ' s mental condition began to deteriorate . According to the 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 . He fell hopelessly into debt . Compounding his worries was caring for his beloved Cherokee , who suffered a devastating smallpox epidemic after the war . In March 1867 , Thomas was declared insane and committed to a state institution in Raleigh . From then until the end of his life in 1893 , he lived in and out of mental hospitals . In 1887 Thomas assisted the ethnologist James Mooney of the Smithsonian Institution by telling him of Cherokee ways . Mooney was doing research and field studies on the Cherokee in western North Carolina . Death and legacy . Thomas died in the state mental hospital in Morganton , North Carolina ; he was buried on a hilltop in Waynesville . Fictional accounts . Will Cooper , the main character in Charles Frazier ' s 2006 novel " Thirteen Moons " , is based in part on William Holland Thomas . In the Author ' s Note , Frazier states that Will Cooper is not William Holland Thomas , " although they do share some DNA . "