He entered the Confederate States Army in May 1861 and served with the First Regiment, North Carolina Volunteers, until the close of the Civil War, attaining the rank of lieutenant.

He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1868, and commenced practice in Hertford, North Carolina.

Skinner was elected as a Democrat to the Forty-eighth Congress on November 20, 1883, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Walter F. Pool.

He served as delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1892 and 1904, and as a member of the North Carolina State Senate in 1899 and 1900.

He died in Baltimore, Maryland on December 22, 1907, and was interred in Holy Trinity Churchyard, Hertford, North Carolina.