On May 22, 1863, General Ulysses S. Grant waged one of the most decisive campaigns of the Civil War against a vital stronghold of the Confederacy, Vicksburg,

Miss. The battle was anything but quick and

easy. As the weeks wore on, thousands of soldiers and civilians lost their lives in the Union Army’s brutal struggle to defeat the South and end slavery. In the midst of the chaos and bloodshed, John Maney, a runaway slave who had just escaped his over-seers, joined the Union heavy artillery as they surrounded Vicksburg and began an extended artillery barrage on the city.

Maney, the former slave turned Union soldier, was originally from Murfreesboro. In the year 1813, Dr. James Maney and his wife Sallie Murfree Maney, the white slave owners from whom John gained his last name, moved from North Carolina to Tennessee to inherit 274 acres of land north of Murfreesboro.

The land was formerly owned by Sallie’s father, Col. Hardee Murfree, for whom the town of Murfreesboro was named. On this property they built a small brick house and started what has become known as the Oaklands Plantation.

The Maney family also owned a plantation in Madison County, Miss., and between the two properties they owned about 250 slaves.

John Maney was born March 15, 1839 to slaves who worked at the Oaklands Plantation, but at age 3 he was sent south to Mississippi with his older sister to Calhoun Station where the Maney’s other plantation was located.

John Maney spent more than 20 years of his life enslaved to the Maney family. His first opportunity for freedom came in 1863 when Grant began his siege of the city of Vicksburg.

The Union Army had long considered the capture of Vicksburg essential to gaining control of the Mississippi River. Control of the river was crucial to both sides during the conflict, economically as well as strategically. President Abraham Lincoln had even called Vicksburg the key to obtaining victory over the Confederate states.

The effort to capture Vicksburg from the Confederacy was long and severe, lasting more than a year from early 1862 until Vicksburg fell on Independence Day in 1863.

It was during this time that John Maney escaped. He suddenly had a place to go. The Emancipation Proclamation issued in January 1863 gave the Union army the right to recruit former slaves into the military.

And just a few months after this historic document declared that, “All persons held as slaves are, and henceforward shall be free,” Maney ran away with a small group of slaves to Vicksburg and joined the Union army as they led the way toward liberating all African Americans from slavery, according to Civil War records.

Once enlisted, he became a member of the U.S. Colored Troops, Heavy Artillery, Company B, 5th Regiment. Maney was 24 years old when his life as a slave ended and his life as a soldier began. The Civil War would not be over for two more bloody years and the 5th Regiment Heavy Artillery would see a great deal of violence and brutally tragic events during that time.

As the Civil War came closer to it’s conclusion, conditions were bitter for all the soldiers involved, and most certainly for black soldiers, as malnourishment and disease took their toll among the ranks.

John Maney’s regiment was sent on two expeditions after he enlisted. One was from Vicksburg to Fayette, Miss., in September 1864 and the next was to Yazoo City, Miss., in November that same year. After these expeditions they were assigned garrison duty back in Vicksburg.

During the 5th Regiment’s tour of duty, 124 enlisted men were mortally wounded in combat with an additional four officers killed. Adding greatly to the tragedy, another 697 enlisted men died from the more likely fate of dysentery, typhoid and other diseases.

Amazingly, John Maney survived. He was honorably discharged when his regiment was finally mustered out in May of 1866.

After his discharge, he continued to live in Vicksburg for two more years until he moved permanently to Learned-Raymond, Miss. to work as a farmer. There he met Fanny Gray whom he married in 1875. The couple had four children. He spent the rest of his life in Learned-Raymond as a free man.

In post-Civil War years, however, freedom was a relative term.

John Maney had fought long and hard to free himself from the bonds of slavery and he had fought to help other slaves attain their freedom as well. But the world they had been freed into during Reconstruction was in no way just or fair for African Americans.

There was social upheaval and economic depression, especially in the South, as the old agrarian system gave way and the struggle for a new order began.

There was also deep-seated racism and discrimination against blacks that wasn’t addressed until the 1960s when Martin Luther King Jr. led the civil rights movement, not just for freedom but for equality.

Ultimately, for John Maney, as for so many former slaves in his time, an idyllic life of freedom was elusive.

After having four children, John Maney and Fanny Gray separated but were never officially divorced.

Not long after that, he contracted syphilis, which was very widespread in those years. His illness eventually led to blindness and he was unable to work.

However, he still received payments from his military pension for the years he spent fighting for the United States. After his death, Fanny Gray reported in his official military pension file that John Maney had continued to send her money for years after their separation.