- Date:
- 1862
- Original Format:
- Photographic Print
- Item#:
- MES17355
Benjamin H. Helm (1831-1863)
Benjamin Hardin Helm was a Confederate general. He married the half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln, Emily Todd, in 1856. Helm formed a close friendship with Abraham Lincoln. When the war broke out Lincoln offered Helm a position as major, but Helm joined the Confederacy as a colonel. In 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general. In the Confederate attacks on Chickamauga in September 1863 Helm was mortally wounded. The White House went into mourning when he died.