George Washington Helme

George Washington Helme (May 18, 1822 – June 16, 1893) was the founder of Helmetta, New Jersey.

Helme, born in Kingston, Pennsylvania, was the ninth child and fifth son of Major Oliver Helme (descendant of an old Rhode Island family begun by Christopher Helme) by his second wife Sarah Pease Fish.

As a young man George Helme obtained a clerkship with Asa Packer, a wealthy contractor involved in the construction of locks, boats, and railroads for the transport of coal (and who eventually founded Lehigh University). In his mid-twenties, Helme resigned his position with Mr. Packer and moved to Louisiana, where his older brother Samuel was living. There he studied law and was admitted to the bar in New Orleans around 1851, subsequently establishing his own law practice, which he continued until the outbreak of the Civil War.

He returned north to marry Margaret Appleby in 1856 in Spotswood, New Jersey. Their first two children, daughters, were born before the Civil War. The first child, born in New Jersey in 1857, died a year later. Their second child was born in New Jersey in 1859. Their third child was born in Chatawa, Mississippi (about 100 miles north of New Orleans) in 1862, just after war broke out. Their last child, a son, was born after the war in 1866 in New Jersey.

Helme left his law practice and enlisted in the Confederate States Army on March 8, 1862 in New Orleans as a Captain in the Crescent Regiment, commanding Company G, Marion Rangers, nicknamed the Ruggles Guards. The regiment went immediately to Corinth, Mississippi, to reinforce General P. G. T. Beauregard’s army. On April 6, 1862 the regiment played an important role in the capture of two Federal divisions during the Battle of Shiloh. The regiment commander’s report of the engagement cited Captain Helme as “among the line officers I have great satisfaction in mentioning ... as distinguished for coolness, bravery, and the faithful discharge of their duty...” The regiment was disbanded on June 3, 1862 at the expiration of its 90-day enlistment, most of the men being transferred into the 18th Louisiana Regiment.

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