Jesse Durbin Ward (February 11, 1819 – May 22, 1886) was an Ohio lawyer, politician, newspaper publisher, and American Civil War officer.

He studied law under Judge George J. Smith (1799–1878) and Thomas Corwin, a Lebanon attorney who later was Governor of Ohio.

In 1845, Ward, a Whig, was elected Warren County's seventh Prosecuting Attorney, an office once held by Governor Corwin.

When President Abraham Lincoln called for volunteers to fight in the Civil War, Ward was the first in his congressional district to enlist.

He rose to be a major in the 17th Ohio Volunteer Infantry and saw action at Mill Springs, Corinth, Stones River, Hoover's Gap, and Chickamauga.

[4] After the war ended, President Andrew Johnson named him United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio.