Editing Waynesville, North Carolina (section)

===The "Battle" of Waynesville===
Waynesville was the scene of the last and perhaps most unusual skirmish in the eastern theater of the [[American Civil War]]. On May 6, 1865, Union Colonel William C. Bartlett's 2nd North Carolina (Federal) [[Mounted Infantry]] were attacked at White Sulphur Springs (east of Waynesville) by a detachment of rebels from [[Thomas' Legion|Thomas' Legion of Highlanders]], who had been summoned by locals.

[[Eastern United States|East of the Mississippi]], Thomas' Legion fired "The Last Shot" of the Civil War in [[White Sulphur Springs, North Carolina]]. The Legion consisted of [[Cherokee]] and White soldiers. Some of these soldiers had served under [[Jubal A. Early]] during the Shenandoah [[Valley Campaigns of 1864]], but had been sent back to their native North Carolina mountains to engage in guerrilla warfare against the remaining Union forces.

The disoriented Union soldiers retreated into Waynesville, and on the evening of May 6 remaining elements of Thomas' Legion surrounded the town. The soldiers lit numerous bonfires on the ridges above the town and engaged in war chants in an effort to intimidate the Federals. The following day the Confederate commanders Gen. James Green Martin and Col. [[William Holland Thomas]] (for whom the Legion was named) negotiated a surrender. These commanders had been made aware that Generals [[Robert E. Lee]] and [[Joseph E. Johnston]] had already surrendered and that continued hostilities would prove pointless.