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Jordan's Saline Tx.
Nov. 1st 1864
Gentlemen,
I did not receive your letter ordering my papers by mail until about two days ago, and as I then had to go to Tyler to buy the cotton you desired me to purchase, I have not been able to report sooner.
As I have no office nor proper place for the transatction of business my papers do not go up to you in that style I hope to exhibit in future. My "Army Regulations" too are not accessible, hence I am deprived of the proper forms, but trust that a plan statement of facts will suffice. [Inserted in another hand: "only for him" or "truly for him.]
There are some outstanding liabilities which I had not reported but as the parties will not receive C. S. notes in payment of them I am discharging them with salt. This I am forced to do or else stop my works. The gentlemen I expected to get this month with their hands have notified me that the Govt. has taken their teams and hence they cannot come.
I feel greatly mortified at my want of success but the currency has prevented me. I can procure hands on very good terms for salt, say from two to three sacks each per month. A portion of my hands costs me only two sacks. It requires from ten to fifteen hands to a furnace. I now have thirty-three hands besides two overseers---the letter I have agreed to pay one hundred dollars each per month subject to your approval. To [sum?] day and night requires the very best of working men, and no other sort are worth any thing to me. Much of my time is taken up in seeing to the wood choppers, teams, and general business, and hence I need one white man to every furnace.
I have used some salt for my own purposes which will be reported in my next [Qly?] return and have been forced to sell some, for money, to war-widows who could not procure it from others. The exempts are selling at one hundred and fifty dollars per sack. The knowledge of this fact and the destitute condition of the parties made an appeal to me which I could not resist. Indeed I felt that I was here for the protection of that class of individuals, and they came to me expecting favors which they could find no where else. I have been forced to put a stop to cash sales, however, as I cannot use the funds thus collected, nor do I consider myself authorized to make sales, only for such supplies as I need to carry on my works.
I shall look for directions as to what disposition I shall make of the funds I have on hand at the close of the year. True, the amount will probably be small, yet I suppose I must either deposit it for exchange for New Issue or return it to you.
About Christmas I hope to get as many hands as I need, and probably teams, but if the State could furnish transportation she would supply a desideratum which is seriously felt here. The Govt has [aborted?] all the transportation in this section, and private speculation has also done its share of it.
Very Truly Yours,
A. H. Abney
Genl. Agent. S. M. B.