Simonton, John M., 1830-1898

John M. Simonton was a Confederate officer from Mississippi during the Civil War. Born on June 17, 1830, in Lawrence County, Tennessee, Simonton moved to Mississippi in 1849 and operated a store in Comargo until 1857. He was elected to the Mississippi State Senate in 1859 and opposed secession following Abraham Lincoln’s election in 1860. However, when the Mississippi secession convention voted to separate from the Union in January 1861, Simonton volunteered for military service and raised a company of volunteers known as the “Rifle Scouts.” The company was combined with other volunteer units to form the First Mississippi Infantry and Simonton was elected colonel.

Simonton’s most notable action during the Civil War came at Fort Donelson in February 1862, when he was praised for his command of a Confederate brigade. Captured by Ulysses S. Grant’s troops at the fort, he was paroled the following month and returned to Mississippi. He was elected to the Mississippi State Senate again in 1863, but in 1864 he received an appointment to command state military forces in the northern sector of Mississippi, where he served until the end of the war.

Immediately after the war, Simonton took part in the effort to quickly reconstruct the state government according to President Andrew Johnson’s lenient policies. He served in the state senate, being elected president of that body, until it was dispersed by federal authorities for Republican Reconstruction. Simonton returned to the state senate after Reconstruction, serving through the 1880s and 1890s. He also participated in the 1890 state constitutional convention. His last public position was state land commissioner in the late 1890s.

Simonton died on June 24, 1898, after a long illness. He was married to Ruth Potter and the couple had six children. Ruth passed away in 1881 and Simonton married Flora Porter in 1885. He is buried in Whiteside Family Cemetery in Shannon, Mississippi. (Wikipedia; FindaGrave; Weekly Clarion-Ledger, Jackson, MS, June 30, 1898)