The Last Sitting
Oil on Paper 8 x 10"
$300
Oil on Paper 8 x 10"
$300
Sergeant Madison H. Skinner, 61st New York Infantry, and Phoebe Skinner
A 21-year-old farmer from Hamilton, New York, Madison Skinner enlisted in Company G, 61st New York Infantry, in September 1861. He was wounded in the leg during the Seven Days Battles in late June 1862, promoted to Sergeant, and wounded again in the leg at Antietam. Sent to a Philadelphia hospital to recuperate, he was back in the ranks by early 1863, and stood with his regiment in heavy fighting at Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. In September 1863, he secured a two-month furlough and returned to Hamilton, marrying Phoebe Loomis in the City’s Richmond Hotel on his last day of leave. This image was quite possibly made during their wedding, as Sergeant Skinner sports a festive, rose-embroidered vest underneath his uniform frock coat. Returned to duty, he was captured at the Battle of Ream’s Station in August 1864, and imprisoned at a P.O.W. Camp in Salisbury, North Carolina, where he died just three months before Lee’s surrender at Appomattox.
(cont.)
Phoebe, in her request for a widow’s pension, stated that her husband perished from “starvation and inhuman treatment by the rebels.” Her subsequent history is unknown.