Linda, if the old roadbed near your friends home at Butlersville is running east/west, then it is the Austin/Des Arc Road. Remember that Hwy 38 is the modern road of the period road, and the old civil war road crisscrosses the modern day Hwy 38 by as much as a quarter of a mile north and south on its way to Des Arc. The Des Arc road east of Austin in some places is north and south of Hwy 38, and the original roadbed is about ten feet deep compared to the lay of the land in some places. On the old Reed and Mayer farms you could park a four wheel drive truck in the original road bed and not see the top of the truck until you walked up to it.