integer save into single bytes

yes I tried bit shifts with:

  unsigned long b1 = buffer[1] * 1 << 32;
  unsigned long b2 = buffer[2] * 1 << 16;
  unsigned long b3 = buffer[3] * 1 << 8;
  unsigned long b4 = buffer[4] * 1 << 0;
  unsigned long val = b1 + b2 +b3 + b4;

but didn't worked therefore i switched to pow....