[4] As a boy, Thomas worked for US Congressman Felix Walker, clerking at his trading post on Soco Creek (in what is now the Qualla Boundary).

The story is told that, unable to pay Thomas what he owed him, he gave the youth a set of law books.

While most Cherokee opposed ceding their lands in the Southeast, the men negotiating the New Echota Treaty believed that removal was inevitable, and hoped to make the best deal possible for their people.

In April 1839, Thomas was picked by Yonaguska as successor Principal Chief of the Qualla Cherokee, this is also recognized officially by the EBCI.

However, Salonitah also laid claim as Principal Chief because of his distrust of Thomas, though he never had full support of all the Qualla Cherokee.

During the 1840s and 1850s, Thomas worked to gain recognition of the Cherokee as citizens of North Carolina and continued to purchase land for them in his name.

The Legion operated primarily in East Tennessee and Western North Carolina, except for a short period when they were deployed to the Shenandoah Valley.

By May 1865, the main Confederate armies has surrendered and Union soldiers controlled Waynesville and the rest of Western North Carolina.

[2] 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.

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.

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.

[2] Thomas died in the state mental hospital in Morganton, North Carolina; he was buried in Green Hill Cemetery in Waynesville.

Charles Frazier based his main character, Will Cooper, in his novel Thirteen Moons (2006), in part on William Holland Thomas.

His novella includes a foreword by Luther Wilson, and a tribute by Michell Hicks, Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians.