Wounded at Gettysburg
By Gord Skinner
(February/March 2009 Civil War News)

Illustrated, softcover, 173 pp., 2007. AuthorHouse, 1663 Liberty Dr., Suite 200, Bloomington, IN 47403, $16.95 plus shipping.

Reviewer: Blake A. Magner
Blake A. Magner is the Book Review Editor of Civil War News. He makes his living as an editor, writer, cartographer and photographer of Civil War history. He is author of At Peace With Honor: The Civil War Burials of Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Review:
This volume is a collection of 44 letters written home during the Civil War by William H. Skinner Jr. Will was a farmer from Rochester, N.Y., who enlisted in the 108th New York in August 1862.

On July 3, 1863, he was wounded in the leg when a shell burst near him. The wound was serious enough that it ended his active participation with the regiment and he spent much of the rest of the war in the hospital.

At one point he returned briefly to the regiment but was unable to carry out his duties due to the injury.

The letters are the usual run-of-the-mill type that most soldiers wrote home. There is no battle description though there are some interesting descriptions of Skinner’s time in the hospital.

His wounding is only given a couple of sentences in one letter written home from the hospital.

The volume contains some illustrations of Will and his family. Each entry has a photocopy of the actual letter Will wrote as well as a transcription of the contents.

Muster rolls are included as are his application for an Invalid Pension and Surgeon’s Certificate.

The title is misleading as the book has little to do with Gettysburg with the exception of Will being wounded there. Though Wounded at Gettysburg might be of interest to the Skinner relatives, the average Civil War News reader will find little of use in it.