Monday, 30th.—Through carelessness, or some other cause, five barrels of salt were left where they were captured, near where the enemy had been camping. Lieutenant M. V. Wilson was ordered to take twenty-five of Allison’s. Company and a wagon and go back after the salt, while the rest of the command moved on toward Barboursville. We regarded this as rather a hazardous trip, though we went back to, and loaded in, four barrels of the salt (thinking five would be too much for our team) without any incident worthy of note; but we had not gone far with our salt before bang! bang! bang! went several guns back about where our rear guard was. This caused considerable excitement in our little squad, though one of the rear guard soon came dashing up, and reported that it was only bush-whackers that had fired on them, and that some of the balls cut very close, but no one was hurt. So we felt better then, and moved on to Barboursville without any more trouble. Here we found two companies of our battalion (B and C), but the other two (A and D) had gone on back to Camp Buckner, on Cumberland river. We found Rains’ Regiment and the balance of our company (E) encamped two miles from Barboursville on the road leading back to Camp Buckner.
Colonel Cummings went with his detachment to the Salt Works, loaded in all the salt there, 200 bushels, and returned without coming in contact with the enemy. He receipted for the salt, as directed by General Zollicoffer. The Salt Works belonged to Union men, yet Zollicoffer expected to have it paid for at the price of salt at the works—forty cents per bushel.
