Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A rare and interesting Canada General Service pair awarded to Sergeant T. D. Skinner, Chicago Volunteer Company, late 5th Wisconsin Infantry, who, in addition to his service in the Fenian Raids Crisis of 1866, saw extensive action in the American Civil War

Canada General Service 1866-70, 1 clasp, Fenian Raid 1866 (Sgt. T. D. Skinner, Chicago Vol. Co.); United States of America, Grand Army of the Republic 1861-66 veteran’s medal, bronze, unnamed as issued, with integral top eagle riband bar, good very fine and a rare combination (2) £400-£500

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, Medals from the Collection of Peter Duckers.

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Timothy Douglas Skinner was born in 1839 at Markham, Ontario, into a family of early settler English Loyalists who had fled northwards following the American War of Independence. He was working as a lumberman at Grand Rapids, Michigan at the start of the American Civil War and joined Captain Catlin’s D Company of the 5th Wisconsin Infantry, Army of the Potomac, in May 1861. He served until being invalided out in May 1863, his unit having already seen severe action including the siege of Yorktown, Williamsburg, the ‘Peninsula Campaign’, Richmond, the ‘Seven Days Battle’, Antietam, Fredericksburg. He duly received a United States Army pension, paid to him in Ontario and afterwards to his wife.

At the outbreak of the Fenian Crisis in 1866, now working in Chicago and with the fear of an invasion of Canada, Skinner joined the Chicago Volunteers - a loyalist ex-patriot British unit formed in the city. With nationalist feelings running high in the city’s large Irish population, there were frequent violent clashes between men of the two communities. Immediately promoted to Corporal because of his previous army experience, as related in the regimental history, Skinner served with the Chicago Volunteers during their long rail journey to Toronto. Greeted by cheering crowds at every station en-route, they arrived on 5 June 1866 to a rapturous civic welcome and formed part of the area garrison.

The crisis was short-lived but Skinner later moved back to Canada permanently becoming a farmer, firstly in Whitchurch, Ontario and then at Newmarket, Ontario.

In 1912, he applied for a Fenian Raid grant, forwarding this medal to the authorities to show that he had indeed served. His hand-written claim, from Cedar Valley, contained the following words: ‘I have forgotten who commanded the regiment at that time, it is so long ago... if I am entitled to the bounty it will come very acceptable as I am a poor man over 75 you will I hope excuse the writing forty some years passed with my nerves broken have made it almost impossible for me to write please send my medal back to me at Cedar Valley Post Office I would not like to lose it my memory is a total wreck and nerves also… not expecting anything I came to defend my native home.’

Skinner died two years later in Newmarket, Ontario, on 5 May 1914, aged 75.

Sold with copied research including an article on the recipient.