Skip Navigation


From a "whirlpool of death . . . to victory"
Civil War Remembrances of
Jesse Tyler Sturm
14th West Virginia Infantry

"Forty miles more without rations! Could we stand it? We were poor and emaciated, the skeletons of our former selves, without strength or energy, but we plodded on as best we could . . . ."

The Civil War stories of Union veteran Jesse Tyler Sturm are now available in a new book from West Virginia History. Born in Marion County in 1844, Jesse Tyler Sturm was living in Harrison County when the Civil War began in 1861. His own state divided by the conflict, Tyler Sturm, as his acquaintances knew him, chose to support the Union.

After serving a year with a local militia company, Sturm enlisted in Company H of the 14th West Virginia Infantry in 1862. He spent much of the next two years guarding the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad before participating in his first important action at Cloyds Mountain in southwestern Virginia on May 9, 1864. Over the next six months, the regiment fought at several places in the Shenandoah Valley, including Carter's Farm, Fisher's Hill, Winchester (Opequon), and Cedar Creek. Sturm saw his last action during a March 1865 skirmish near Patterson's Creek in West Virginia.

More than forty years later, Sturm, by then a longtime resident of Kansas, wrote several series of articles about his wartime service. Originally published over the course of a decade in several different newspapers, most of his stories have been assembled in From a "whirlpool of death . . . to victory." Supplementing Sturm's reminiscences are an introduction, annotations, illustrations, and an index.

The 175-page, softbound book is available for the retail price of $12.95 and may be purchased at the Archives and History Library in Charleston. The book also may be ordered by mail from Archives and History for $15.00 per copy, which includes postage and handling (for delivery in the United States only). To receive a copy by mail, please return this order form with a check or money order in the amount of $15.00 per copy payable to "West Virginia Archives and History" to:

Archives and History Section
Division of Culture and History
The Cultural Center
1900 Kanawha Boulevard, East
Charleston, WV 25305-0300

From a "whirlpool of death . . .to victory": Civil War Remembrances of Jesse Tyler Sturm, 14th West Virginia Infantry

Name__________________________________________

Address_______________________________________

City__________________________________________

State___    Zip Code_________   Number of Copies___    Amount Enclosed________

For more information, call (304) 558-0230.

Important information regarding checks received for payments

West Virginia History Journal

West Virginia Archives and History