Wayne County, Tennessee
Wayne County is a county located in south central Tennessee, along the Alabama border. As of the 2020 census, the population was 16,232.[2] Its county seat is Waynesboro.[3] The county is named after General "Mad Anthony" Wayne, a prominent military leader in the American Revolutionary War.
For other uses, see Wayne County.
Wayne County
United States
1817
General Anthony Wayne[1]
Waynesboro
736 sq mi (1,910 km2)
734 sq mi (1,900 km2)
1.6 sq mi (4 km2) 0.2%
16,232 
22/sq mi (8/km2)
History[edit]
Wayne County was created in 1817 from parts of Hickman and Humphreys counties. Waynesboro, its county seat, was established in 1821.[1] Located along the Tennessee River, the city of Clifton emerged as a key river port in the mid-19th century.[1]
Like several other counties on the Western Highland Rim near the Tennessee River, Wayne County was largely pro-Union during the Civil War, contrary to the generally pro-Confederate sympathies of West and Middle Tennessee. In Tennessee's Ordinance of Secession referendum on June 8, 1861, Wayne County voted to remain in the Union by a margin of 905 to 409.[4] Wayne was one of only eight counties in West or Middle Tennessee to support the Union, and had the second highest vote against secession of these eight, behind only Fentress County. Earlier on February 9, 1861, Wayne County voters had voted against holding a secession convention by a margin of 737 to 255.[5]