Louisville, Kentucky, attorney and soldier (C.S.A). Kentucky native. Son of John Larue Helm and Lucinda Barbour Hardin Helm. Married to Emily Todd Helm on March 26, 1856, in Franklin County. Father of Katherine Helm, Elodie Todd Helm, and Benjamin Hardin Helm. Attended Elizabethtown Seminary. Attended the Kentucky Military Institute near Frankfort. Graduate of the United States Military Academy in 1851. Served in the 2nd Regular United States Cavalry as brevet second lieutenant from 1851 to October 9, 1852. Graduate of the University of Louisville School of Law in 1853. Attended Harvard Law School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1853. Attorney in partnership with Martin H. Cofer and John Larue Helm in Elizabethtown from 1853 to 1856. Member of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky in 1855. Commonwealth’s attorney for the third district from 1856 to 1858. Attorney in partnership with Martin D. Cofer from 1856 to 1858. Attorney in partnership with Horatio W. Bruce in Louisville from 1858 to 1861. Employed Briggett [Unknown] as a servant in Louisville in 1860. Appointed assistant inspector-general of the Kentucky State Guard in 1860. Served in the 1st Kentucky Cavalry (C.S.A.) as colonel and brigadier general from October 19, 1861, to August 5, 1862. Served in the 1st Kentucky Brigade of the Army of Tennessee as commander from January 31, 1863. Died at the Battle of Chickamauga in Chickamauga, Georgia, on September 20, 1863.
