Knight Edwards was the son of Louisa Edwards (b. SC ca. 1814) and Edward D. Edwards (b. SC ca. 1804), a wealthy plantation owner in Choctaw (now Webster) County, Mississippi. In 1860, he was listed as a 16-year-old student. Knight enlisted as a private in Co. E, 4th Mississippi Infantry on March 25, 1863. He was taken prisoner after the fall of Vicksburg and signed his parole on July 12, 1863. His service records indicate that Edwards died three days later at a Vicksburg hospital (cause not reported).