Ben Hardin Helm Monument
Chickamauga National Battlefield
Ft. Oglethorpe, GA
Photo courtesy of LCWRT Member John Davis, text courtesy of
LCWRT Member Holly Jenkins-Evans
This pyramid marker rests at the site where Brig. General Ben Hardin Helm (CSA) was mortally wounded at about 10 AM, September 20, 1863. Helm was commanding a brigade in Breckenridge's Division.
From nps.gov: "The assault began on the Confederate right, with Confederate troops under the command of former Vice President John C. Breckenridge and Irish-born Patrick Cleburne attacking the Union left along present day Battleline Road and the Kelly Field area. Killed in this fight was President Abraham Lincoln's brother-in-law, Confederate General Benjamin Helm."
Helm was a carried from the field by two of his staff officers, Lt. William Wallace Herr and and Lt. John B. Pirtle and died the next day, Sept 21, 1863. The Lincolns went into private mourning, and his widow Emilie Todd Helm was given safe passage to join them at the White House in Dec. 1863. In 1866 Lt. Herr married another Todd sister, Kitty.
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