No major battles were fought in Wayne County, Tennessee during the Civil War. However, the armies of both the Union and the Confederacy traversed the county numerous times during the period of the war. An estimated 100,000 soldiers, both Union and Confederate, marched through Wayne County, Tennessee. The result was devastation for the people of the county. By 1865 the county seat of Waynesboro had been abandoned because of the constant threat of armies marching through. Food and supplies were exhausted through the county.

In 1861, the people of the county voted in the majority to remain in the Union, although there was a strong secessionist sympathy. When the State of Tennessee seceded from the Union, several companies of Confederate soldiers were raised in Wayne County. The men in these units came from all the various districts of the county, although the majority were from the Buffalo River area and from the Houston and Craven’s Mills area.

So great, however, was the sympathy of a majority of the people for the Union that as soon as General Grant’s army marched into Savannah in March 1862, many men of Wayne County walked or rode to Savannah and volunteered for Union service. These men joined Ohio, Illinois and Indiana units stationed with Grant at Savannah.

Following the Battle of Shiloh in April 1862, General Grant sent Captain Edward R. Bladen to Brantley’s Crossroads (in the area of present day Cromwell Crossroads) in Wayne County, Tennessee to recruit volunteers for Union service. Over 200 men volunteered at this time, forming the units of Co. A and Co. G of the 10th Tennessee Infantry.

By the end of the war, over 2500 men from Wayne County, Tennessee were either in Confederate or Union service. The only people left at home were old men, women, and children, who struggled to raise enough food to feed their families and protect their property from both the armies and marauding guerrillas.

On the following pages we will attempt to provide information on Confederate and Union Units and on the men who served in those units, as well as some history of the many skirmishes which took place inside the boundaries of the county during the war.

If you have information on any Wayne County, Tennessee resident or native, who served either the Union or the Confederacy, please let us know. We will be happy to add your information to these pages.

• The Union
• The Confederacy
• General John Bell Hood’s Invasion of Tennessee: October 1864 – January 1865, The Wayne County Passage
• Stories From Home

WAYNE COUNTY, TENNESSEE WAR BETWEEN THE STATES VETERANS BOOK AVAILABLE AT THE WAYNE COUNTY HISTORIAN’S OFFICE IN THE COURTHOUSE  FOR $60.00 OR CALL 931 722-5016 AND ASK PRICE W/SHIPPING AND HANDLING THEN SEND CHECK TO WAYNE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, P.O. BOX 866, WAYNESBORO, TENNESSEE 38485