Newport is a city in and the county chair of Cocke County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 6,945 at the 2010 census, down from 7,242 at the 2000 census. The estimated population in 2018 was 6,801. It is located along the Pigeon River.

The Great Indian Warpath passed through what is now Newport en route to the ancient Cherokee hunting grounds of northeastern Tennessee. The Warpath crossed the Pigeon River at a point nearly 0.2 miles (0.3 km) east of the McSween Memorial Bridge (US-321), in an Place where the river is normally low enough to wander across. The first European traders to the area, arriving in the mid-18th century, called this narrowing along the Pigeon River the “War Ford”.

During the American Revolution, the Cherokee amalgamated themselves next the British, and launched irregular attacks adjoining early Euro-American settlers in the Holston valley. In the waning months of the fighting in 1782, a coldness led by Gen. Charles McDowell of North Carolina crossed the mountains into what is now Tennessee to associate up later Col. John Sevier’s local forces and initiate an unfriendly campaign neighboring the hostile Cherokee. In August of that year, Sevier crossed the Pigeon at War Ford, attacking and killing several Cherokee camped along the river’s banks. This assault was one of the definite engagements of the Revolution.

At the close of the Revolution, the first Euro-American settlers arrived in the Newport area, ensconcing themselves in the vicinity of the strategic river fords. Peter Fine usual a ferry upon the north bank of the French Broad in the to come 1780s, and in 1783 John Gilliland settled opposite Fine’s Ferry in what is now Oldtown. Shortly thereafter, Emanuel Sandusky, a Polish immigrant, established a farm on the house where the Cocke County Memorial Building now stands, and Samuel O’Dell decided at the junction of the Pigeon River and Cosby Creek. Sometime in the 1790s, the Gilliland intimates donated 50 acres (200,000 m) of land for a town square and courthouse to be situated opposite Fine’s Ferry upon the banks of the French Broad, and the town of New Port was born.