WAYNESVILLE

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 of Highlanders.

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.

Frog Level

Waynesville began to see development after arrival of the railroad in 1884. The agricultural, lumber and tourism industries in Waynesville and Haywood County began to thrive as access to the west was opened up.

The area of Waynesville located along Richland Creek, northwest and downhill from Main Street, was where the railroad tracks were laid. Until this time the area had been essentially a swampland, with a few scattered buildings but no major development. Once the depot was built and the train arrived this section was developed. It was given the name of "Frog Level" by the local community because of its low-lying location along Richland Creek, the "frog level" when the area flooded.

Downtown and the nearby Frog Level commercial centers of Waynesville continued to be the central focus for social life, transportation, and wholesale and retail businesses through the 1940s. Businesses in the Frog Level area in the 1930s and 1940s included hardware stores, farm supplies, coal sales, auto dealers and garages, furniture stores, wholesale groceries, and warehouses and lumber companies, all of which were businesses dependent on the railroad.

As the automobile became the primary mode of transportation for most residents, the railroad declined in importance. This in turn led to a shift of business away from Frog Level. The last passenger train arrived in Waynesville in 1949, and freight trains pass through Frog Level twice daily, with most trains continuing on to Sylva.

By the 1980s, the railroad in Waynesville had been integrated into the Southern Railway Company system. The first depot burned in 1900, but it was soon replaced with another depot that remained standing until 1987.