Chuck
May 21st, 2008, 06:08 PM
A free program on Emilie Todd Helm: Rebel in the White House will be portrayed by Betsy B. Smith at the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center on May 25th at 1 p.m. The program is part of the Humanities Council Chautauqua program and is sponsored by the Hayswood Foundation.
Emile Todd Helm, the half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln had a front row view of history during the Civil War era. Emilie was eighteen years younger than her sister Mary, who married Abraham Lincoln in 1842. In 1856, Emilie married Benjamin Helm, a West Point graduate who had become a lawyer in Elizabethtown. She and her husband knew the Lincolns very well. The new brother-in-laws were fast friends.
Benjamin Helm turned down a personal offer from Lincoln to become paymaster of the Union Army with the rank of major, choosing instead to join the Confederacy and become the president's "rebel brother-in-law." Emilie Helm followed her husband south as he rose to the rank of Brigadier General in command of the First Kentucky Brigade [the famed Orphan Brigade]. She was in Alabama in September 1863 when she got word he was killed at Chickamauga, President and Mrs. Lincoln invited Emilie to come to the White House. As a southern loyalist and widow of the commander of the famous Orphan Brigade, her presence in the White House aroused protests. Lincoln defended his right to have anyone he chose as his guest, but Helm soon departed for Kentucky, where she lived out her long life, dying in 1930.
She weathered the ordeals of the war and reconstruction and landed in Elizabethtown, where three consecutive presidents appointed her postmistress. Helm attended many Confederate reunions, and was hailed as the Mother of the Orphan Brigade.
Betsy B. Smith of Cynthiana portrays Emilie Todd Helm. Smith is a graduate of Georgetown College, a free-lance writer, and the director of a Mother's Day Out program. She joins her husband, Ed "Adolph Rupp" Smith, and son, Ethan "Price Hollowell" Smith, in the Chautauqua living history program.
For further information contact:
Sue Ellen Grannis
606.564.5865
curator@kygmc.org
Emile Todd Helm, the half-sister of Mary Todd Lincoln had a front row view of history during the Civil War era. Emilie was eighteen years younger than her sister Mary, who married Abraham Lincoln in 1842. In 1856, Emilie married Benjamin Helm, a West Point graduate who had become a lawyer in Elizabethtown. She and her husband knew the Lincolns very well. The new brother-in-laws were fast friends.
Benjamin Helm turned down a personal offer from Lincoln to become paymaster of the Union Army with the rank of major, choosing instead to join the Confederacy and become the president's "rebel brother-in-law." Emilie Helm followed her husband south as he rose to the rank of Brigadier General in command of the First Kentucky Brigade [the famed Orphan Brigade]. She was in Alabama in September 1863 when she got word he was killed at Chickamauga, President and Mrs. Lincoln invited Emilie to come to the White House. As a southern loyalist and widow of the commander of the famous Orphan Brigade, her presence in the White House aroused protests. Lincoln defended his right to have anyone he chose as his guest, but Helm soon departed for Kentucky, where she lived out her long life, dying in 1930.
She weathered the ordeals of the war and reconstruction and landed in Elizabethtown, where three consecutive presidents appointed her postmistress. Helm attended many Confederate reunions, and was hailed as the Mother of the Orphan Brigade.
Betsy B. Smith of Cynthiana portrays Emilie Todd Helm. Smith is a graduate of Georgetown College, a free-lance writer, and the director of a Mother's Day Out program. She joins her husband, Ed "Adolph Rupp" Smith, and son, Ethan "Price Hollowell" Smith, in the Chautauqua living history program.
For further information contact:
Sue Ellen Grannis
606.564.5865
curator@kygmc.org