Charles Helm was born on June 21, 1817, at Hornellsville, New York, United States, the son of Francis Taliaferro and Sallie (McKinney) Helm. His father, who was of an old Virginia family, moved to Newport, Kentucky, in 1817, where his descendants still lived.
Charles Helm read law in the office of John Wooleston Tibbatts and was admitted to the bar in 1842.
Charles Helm was associated in practice with his preceptor, and in the Mexican War was for a time the first lieutenant in the 16th Kentucky Regiment under Colonel John Wooleston Tibbatts. He subsequently served as aide to General Wool. At the close of the war he resume the practice of law at Newport. In 1851 he was elected to the Kentucky legislature, but his Political career closed after one term, and he was appointed United States commercial agent at the island of St. Thomas.
Helm was the representative of the United States at St. Thomas at the time of the events which originated the Butterfield claims against Denmark. Two ships from New York, one of them laden with ammunition, were detained at St. Thomas at the end of 1854 partly because of the need of repairs and partly because of a suspicion that they were intended to give aid to a rebellion in Venezuela. The ships were eventually sold to the Mexican government, but the events of their detention at St. Thomas led to claims for damages against the Danish government. Helm, as the arbitrator’s award of 1890 finally showed, evinced a quite proper willingness to cooperate with the governor in the exaction of guarantees against violation of Danish neutrality; but his action was posthumously reprimanded by the Department of State when used by Denmark as an argument against the claim.
In 1858 Helm became consul general at Havana, where he enjoyed friendly relations with the captain-general, Serrano. On the opening o the Civil War in 1861, he resigned his post, and it is said that Seward, in urging him to remain loyal to the Union, gave him a silk American flag.
In July 1861 he was appointed special agent of the Confederacy in the West Indies, to reside in Havana, and he arrived in Cuba, by Way of Canada and London, in October, where services to the Confederacy were considerable but not spectacular. He found Havana sympathetic with the Southern cause and his friend the captain-general not less so. In fact Helm Promised General Serrano informally that he Would not encourage or allow any breach of Spanish neutrality by his compatriots, with the understanding that the Cuban government would hehave as benevolently toward the Confederacy as neutrality permitted. This agreement, continued with Serrano’s successor, was eminently satisfactory.
Helm several times commented to his home government that in Cuba four people were treated with all the kindness and consideration possible, and on two occasions the ship Florida received something more than neutral hospitality at Havana. In general Helm's work consisted in the purchase and shipment of arms, on supervision of matters connected with blockade-running, and in arranging for the transmission of dispatches and the conveyance of passengers between the Confederate States and Europe.
After the war he lived with other former Confederates in Toronto, where he died.
In 1854 Charles Helm married Louise A. Whistler, by whom he had five children.
