John Edwards was born around 1844 in Charlottesville, Virginia, and worked as a laborer and fieldhand before the war. He enlisted in the Union navy on December 1, 1863, at Skipwith's Landing in Issaquena County, Mississippi, for a period of two years. Officials listed his race as "negro" and gave him the rating of landsman. It is unclear if he was a slave prior to his enlistment. Edwards served on board the USS Louisville at the same time as two other Albemarle-born sailors, Henry Murray and David Linton. The war department transferred the Louisville, an ironclad centerwheel gunboat, to the navy on October 1, 1862. By the time Edwards joined her crew, she had returned to patrol and army support duty, and she remained there until being decommission on July 21, 1865. As part of the spring 1864 expedition up the Red River, the Louisville engaged in limited combat near Columbia, Arkansas, and Skipwith's Landing, Mississippi. Edwards last muster roll is dated July 18, 1865, which is probably about the time he left the navy. He never filed a pension, and nothing is known about his post-war life.