James Walker Skeels was born on August 6, 1838 in Whitehall, NY to Martin Henry Skeels and Sophia Wright Skeels. The family moved to Rosendale, WI soon after James' birth, and his sister Lucia was born there. James enlisted into Company B, 1st Wisconsin Cavalry on September 1, 1861. The unit initially formed at Camp Fremont in Ripon, WI but moved to Camp Harvey in Kenosha in November 1861. There they trained and in March 1862 they moved out to Cape Girardeau, Missouri. For the next year they engaged in skirmishes in Missouri and Arkansas.
In June 1863, the 1st Wisconsin Cavalry transferred to Nashville, TN, where they were attached to the Army of the Cumberland. In that capacity, they engaged in minor actions in surrounding states such as Kentucky, Georgia, and Alabama. The group took part in the Chattanooga campaign in September 1863, playing an important role in the battle of Chickamauga. They remained in the area until May 1864, when they began the initial stages of Sherman's Atlanta campaign. Skeels was promoted to corporal in March 1864.
On May 9, 1864 Skeels was captured at the battle of Varnell's Station, GA. He was held at a Confederate prison in Florence, SC until being paroled in February 1865. Records show that he was a patient at a Union hospital in Wilmington, NC in March 1865 but no further record of him exists. The hospital had no record of his death and the family never saw or heard from him again. Army records officially list him as missing in action.
