John Reed was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, around 1844 to Edmund and Mary J. Reed. His brother was Isaiah Reed, who served in Company A of the 5th USCT Infantry Regiment during the Civil War. In 1852, his owner John Fowles brought his fifty slaves to Ohio, set them free, and gave them pieces of a 1000-acre tract of land. Edmund Reed received forty acres, and John worked for Joseph (or James) Pennington on a neighboring farm to help support the family. 

John Reed enlisted in the Union army on March 3, 1864, near Morrow County, Ohio. Reed described himself as a laborer, and his enlistment records describe him as 5 feet, 11 inches tall, with brown hair, brown eyes, and a brown skin complexion. On March 8, 1864, he mustered in as a private in Company E of the 27th USCT Infantry Regiment near Camp Delaware, Ohio. Reed, however, quickly contracted pneumonia, and he died at Camp Delaware on March 29, 1864. In 1870, his mother Mary J. Reed began receiving a pension of $8 a month because John had previously supporting her. The government dropped the pension in 1884.

Documents: 

John Reed to Mary J. Reed

Testimony of Martha Cousins on behalf of Mary J. Reed