Museum commissions bust of Confederate general
6/16/2013
ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (AP) — A Confederate general whose brother-in-law was the Union president is depicted in new bronze busts being sold to finance a statue destined for Elizabethtown’s Public Square.
This bust of Confederate Brig. Gen. Ben Hardin Helm was created by Western Kentucky University Christina Rankin. Brig. Gen. Ben Hardin Helm of Elizabethtown led the 1st Kentucky Brigade, which is better known in the annals of history as the Orphan Brigade.
He joined the militia as a colonel after rejecting a commission in the Union Army offered by Helm’s brother-in-law, President Abraham Lincoln.
The bust was commissioned by the Hardin County History Museum to help finance a planned statue of Helm, who died nearly 150 years ago at the Battle of Chickamauga.
Two versions of the bust will be sold.
©2013 Associated Press.
