A very good condition leather wallet or billfold made of a high grade, thin, light brown leather decorated with impressed lines. It unfolds to show four sections: a pocket at either end closed with a red leather flap; an open section; and another open section with short red leather retaining flaps at either side. All the red leather is further decorated with fine lines. The inner face of one of the compartments, concealed when the wallet is folded and closed, is stenciled, “A.T. GAMAGE / DAMARISCOTTA / ME.” The stencil is in black ink, slightly rubbed and faded, but fully legible.

Born in 1839, Abram Tarr Gamage listed himself as a seaman by occupation when he enlisted, mustering into U.S. service as a Corporal in Company E of the 4^th Maine Infantry at Rockland on June 15, 1861. The regiment left Maine June 17, arrived in Washington June 21, and were assigned to Oliver O. Howard’s brigade. They fought at Bull Run, losing 23 killed, 27 wounded and 41 missing by one reckoning. Gamage was among the wounded, having been injured by a shell fragment or what he later maintained was a spent 6-pd cannonball, which smashed his cartridge box and injured his right hip and lower back, throwing him some distance, and being later thought to explain internal injuries to his kidneys and bladder that resulted in a discharge for disability and later a pension. His injuries, resulting in the “emission of blood,” kept him in the hospital for several months by his own account- muster rolls for 1861 are incomplete- but he is listed as present in the company from January-February forward and in Spring 1862 served with the regiment on the Peninsula, where they saw action at Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, and the Seven Days Battles - including Oak Grove, Charles City Crossroads, Glendale and Malvern Hill, where he captured on July 1, confined at Richmond, and paroled at Aikens Landing on August 5 or 6. When he was officially exchanged is unclear, but he seems to have been with the regiment when they served in Pope’s Virginia Campaign in late August, fighting at Groveton, Second Bull Run, and Chantilly, where he later claimed to have suffered a minor head wound from a shell fragment also. September-October 1862 muster rolls mark him as present also, and on November 1 he was detailed for recruiting duty back in Maine, which lasted until April 1863, giving him a chance to get married there on April 17 before being ordered back to the regiment. Once back, however, he was sent to the division hospital on April 27. His presence or absence is not stated on the May/June 1863 roll, but some of his medical records indicate he had been returned to duty in May, and then again hospitalized for remittent fever (supposedly admitted June 14 and returned to duty June 15,) but in any case  he is “absent sick. Now in Convalescent Camp Alexandria Va” on the July/Aug roll, so his presence at Chancellorsville or the Gettysburg Campaign is unclear. He was transferred to the Invalid Corps (22^nd Company, 2^nd Battalion) on August 5, and then finally given a disability discharge dating Sept. 29, 1863, as unfit even for that corps, with the cause cited as: “chronic peritonitis from contusion of abdomen received at the battle of Bull Run July 21^st 1861 by a shell.”

After the war he returned to the sea, with the 1870 census listing him still as a sailor, but in 1876 he obtained an appointment as postmaster in Damariscotta, which he held at least through 1880 when the census picks him up with his wife and 13 year-old son. By 1900, however, he is dealing in stationery. He passed away in Damariscotta in 1913, though for some reason a few genealogical sites list the date as 1933.

This would fit nicely in a display of personal effects. [sr][ph:L]

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