This trip took a full day

Canton

Locust Field Cemetery (excerpted from the marker)- The first Locust Old Fields Baptist Church was established here in 1803. It was among the first churches established west of Asheville. Although the original building no longer stands, it served the small community here for many years as a house of worship and a place of education. During the Civil War, it was a muster site for the local 112th Beaverdam Militia Regiment and a campground, according to local tradition. In September 1863, when Union forces captured Cumberland Gap, about three or four hundred 62nd North Carolina Infantry soldiers escaped. Many of these men were Haywood County natives and returned to their homes here. They joined other members of the regiment who were here on furlough and camped at Pigeon River, the name given to Canton before the small town was officially incorporated nearly thirty years later. Although few records exist of exactly where the soldiers camped, Locust Old Fields Church was likely the location. The church and cemetery were again used as a Confederate encampment during the winter of 1864-1865, when Colonel James Robert Love and six companies of Thomas’s Legion camped at Locust Old Fields Church. They later took park in some of the last fighting of the war in Asheville and Waynesville in April and May 1865.

Waynesville

Battle House (excerpted from the marker)- Until it was demolished in 1899, the Battle House, a stagecoach house and inn, stood just to your left. There, on May 7, 1865, a proposed Union surrender was transformed into a Confederate capitulation. After Colonel William C. Bartlett’s 2nd N.C. Mounted Infantry (U.S.) occupied Waynesville early in May, the troops emptied the jail (located near the current police station), then burned it and the courthouse. They also burned the former residence of Robert Love, Sr., a well-regarded Revolutionary hero, founder of Waynesville, and father of Confederate Colonel Matthew Love. The Federals scoured the surrounding area, plundering, raiding, and stealing horses and provisions from civilians. On May 6, a company of Confederate Colonel William H. Thomas’s Legion under Lieutenant Robert T. Conley defeated a numerically superior company of Bartlett’s mounted infantry at White Sulphur Springs, one mile west of here. The Union troops concentrated in Waynesville, which the Confederates then surrounded. Besides Thomas’s 300 Cherokee soldiers, the Confederates also had 300 men under Colonel Robert Love II, all commanded by General James Martin. During the night, Thomas’s men yelled and danced around hundreds of campfires on the mountain slopes to intimidate the Federals. On the morning of May 7, Bartlett sent a flag of truce to Thomas for a surrender meeting here at the Battle House. After considering the surrenders of Generals Robert E. Lee’s army in Virginia on April 9 and General Joseph E. Johnston’s force in North Carolina on April 26, however, Martin decided to surrender his command (western North Carolina), including Thomas’s Legion, to Bartlett. The ceremony occurred two days later.

Thomas’s Resting Place (excerpted from the marker)- Colonel William Holland Thomas (February 5, 1805-May 10, 1893) is among the Confederate officers and soldiers buried here in Greenhill Cemetery. Thomas, who began trading with the Cherokee when he was sixteen, was the first and only white man to serve as a Cherokee chief and an influential figure in antebellum western North Carolina. He represented the Cherokee in the state capital and in Washington, D.C., to help establish the Qualla Boundary (the reservation for the Eastern Band of Cherokee). He organized Thomas’s Legion of Cherokee Indians and Mountaineers in Knoxville, Tennessee, for the Confederacy on September 27, 1862. The people of this area were sometimes referred to as highlanders, and local residents called Thomas’s unit the “Highland Rangers.” Thomas eventually recruited more than 2,000 officers and men, including two companies composed of 400 Cherokee. The unit fought in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia and largely prevented the Federal occupation of western North Carolina. Part of the Legion served in the final engagement of the war in North Carolina at Waynesville on May 6-7. Thomas surrendered the Legion to Union Colonel William C. Bartlett on May 9. The officers in Thomas’s Legion from this area included Colonel William Stringfield, Colonel James Robert Love II, Lieutenant Colonel William C. Walker, and Captain John T. Levi. Stringfield is buried here in Greenhill Cemetery.

Waynesville Engagement (excerpted from the tablet below)- Colonel William C. Bartlett’s 2nd N.C. Mounted Infantry (U.S.) occupied Waynesville early in May 1865. The Federals raided the surrounding countryside, relieving civilians of their horses and provisions. On May 6, a company of Confederate Colonel William H. Thomas’s Legion under Lieutenant Robert T. Conley defeated a company of Bartlett’s mounted infantry at White Sulphur Springs. Conley led his men up the west side of Richland Creek and the Confederates, outnumbered four to one, surprised and routed about 200 of Bartlett’s men near here. The Confederates formed a battle line and fired a volley followed by a vigorous bayonet charge that scattered the Union soldiers. During the engagement, a Federal soldier variously identified as David or James Arwood (or Arrowood) was killed, one of the last men killed in battle east of the Mississippi River during the war. Conley picked up Arwood’s weapon and kept it, later stating, “I still have James Arwood’s gun as a relic.” The rest of the Federals retired to Waynesville. After a night surrounded by Confederate forces, Bartlett met with their commander, General James Martin, on May 7 at the Battle House to negotiate the surrender of the Union forces. It was during this meeting that Martin learned that the Civil War was over—the two largest Confederate armies under Generals Robert E. Lee and Joseph E. Johnston had already capitulated—and surrendered his command, including Thomas’s Legion, to Bartlett instead.

Maggie Valley

Kirk’s Raid- excerpted from the marker. On February 1, 1865, Colonel George Kirk, 2nd North Carolina Mounted Infantry (U.S.), left Newport, Tennessee, with 400 cavalry and 200 infantry for a raid into Haywood County. He passed through the mountains at Mount Sterling, following the Cataloochee Turnpike up Jonathan Creek Valley to Waynesville. While in the valley, his men killed former Confederates Absolom B. Carver and James E. Rice. Kirk and his raiders also burned the home of Young Bennett in Cataloochee and then burned a school that served as a makeshift hospital for ailing Confederate soldiers. Kirk reached Waynesville on February 4 and sacked the town, ordering his men to burn the home of Revolutionary War hero Colonel Robert Love. The raiders also opened the Waynesville jail, liberated its prisoners (mostly local Unionists confined by Confederate authorities), and destroyed the building. After wreaking havoc on the village of Waynesville, Kirk marched his troops toward Tennessee and camped at Balsam Gap, where a small contingent of Home Guards and farmers attacked the raiders. Kirk retreated first to Waynesville and then to Soco Gap. As Kirk approached Soco Gap, Robert T. Conley’s sharpshooters of Thomas’s Legion attacked. Kirk ordered a swift retreat to Balsam Gap, where the Federals escaped into Tennessee less than a week after the raid began.

Cherokee

Museum of the Cherokee Indian- 589 Tsali Boulevard, Cherokee