Joseph Reed was born in about 1750. A resident of South Carolina, he served as a private in the 5th South Carolina Regiment of the Continental Line from March 1776 to June 1777. After Charleston fell to the British in May 1780, Reed evacuated the area and eventually joined Colonel Benjamin Cleveland's Wilkes County Regiment of the North Carolina Militia, under which he served as a private. He was severely wounded in the left thigh during the Battle of King's Mountain and one of his fellow soldiers, William Guest, rescued him from the battlefield. Under orders, Guest took Reed to a doctor in Quaker Meadows, Burke County, North Carolina. After some time with the doctors, Guest then took Reed to Wilkes County, where Guest continued to nurse him back to health until May 1781. After the war Reed moved to Edgefield, South Carolina before moving to Tennessee. He died in Campbell County, Tennessee on September 6, 1830.