ASHMORE, John Durant (1819-1871)
Democrat of South Carolina 
5th congressional district
Served in House 1859-1860
Biography
Representative from South Carolina; born in Greenville District, S.C., August 18, 1819; attended the common schools; studied law; was admitted to the bar but never practiced; engaged in agricultural pursuits; member of the South Carolina state house of representatives 1848-1853; comptroller general of South Carolina, 1853-1857; elected as a Democrat to the Thirty-sixth Congress and served from March 4, 1859, until his resignation on December 21, 1860; chairman, Committee on Mileage (Thirty-sixth Congress); during the Civil War was elected colonel of the Fourth South Carolina Regiment, but resigned before the regiment was called into service; full pardon by President Andrew Johnson on December 28, 1865; engaged in mercantile pursuits in Greenville, S.C.; died in Sardis, Miss., December 5, 1871; interment in Black Jack Cemetery, Batesville, Miss.Courtesy of Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
