At the risk of offending, this story sounds like a local legend that has no basis in fact. It seems unlike that Banks would have send so small a force on such a mission north of Red River. A portion (possibly only one company) of the 2nd New York Veteran Cavalry Regiment was involved in a skirmish at Bayou Saline on April 14, 1864, but there are no reports of this engagement.

Lieutenant Colonel Isham Chisum's Regiment was the 2nd Texas Partisan Rangers of Brigadier General James P. Major's Cavalry Brigade. They were on the south side of Red River at this time and could not have been involved in any fighting near Salisbury Bridge or the Drake Salt Works. T. J. Brown undoubtedly died and was buried in Old Harmony after the war. John W. Bundrick, 28th Louisiana Infantry, survived the war, and undoubtedly his grave is post-war as well.