John Nathaniel Peed was born on March 11, 1843, in King George County, Virginia, to Robert and Nancy Peed. His father was a farmer who owned $1,300 of real estate by 1850. His father died sometime in the 1850s. Peed grew up in King George County, and by 1860, he was working as a farmer.

 

He enlisted in the Confederate army on October 12, 1861, and he mustered in as a private in Company I of the 9^th Virginia Cavalry later that day. He became a bugler on December 1, 1861. The regiment took part in the Peninsula campaign, the Seven Days’ Battles, the Second Battle of Bull Run, the Battle of Antietam, the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Battle of Chancellorsville, the Battle of Gettysburg, the Overland Campaign, the siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox campaign. He surrendered at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, as part of General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

 

Peed returned to King George County after the war and resumed his work as a farmer. He married Virginia Coakley on December 23, 1873, and they had at least seven children: Mary, born around 1874; James, born around 1876; Robert, born around 1878; Edmund, born around 1880; Nannie, born around 184; John, born around 1886; and William, born around 1891.

 

They lived in King George County, and by 1880, he employed at least two Black servants, a Black cook, and three Black farm laborers. His wife died in August 1913, and he remained in King George County with his children. Peed died there of bronchopneumonia on February 20, 1935.

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