The 1864 Confederate engineers map of roads southern Arkansas available at the National Archives, does show some roads in the area, but, as comparison, the 1916 map of Arkansas Roads held by the Arkansas Higway Department I am sure is more accurate. In either case several roads which we take for granted such as Hwy 270 and highway 79 from the Jefferson County line to Rison were constructed well after the war.

Recently a discovery was realized when it was noticed that the Battle of Pine Bluff has been interpreted incorrectly for the last 50 years, This discovery for me changes the common interpretation of the Confederate strategy for executing the battle and the Union responce. The error occurred because a local Historian, who Mr Ed Bearss had relied upon for local details in writting his 1964 account and has been quoted ever since, had assumed that the "Princeton Pike road" in 1964 was the same "Princeton road" of 1860 referred to in Union reports of the battle.

This "NEW" discovery placed two major phases of this battle over a mile away from where every account, written since 1964, placed them. In fact most modern written accounts don't even mention, more than in an off handed manner, the important opening first contact, or the closing engagement as the Confederate withdrew, both of which occurred over a mile outside the then Pine Bluff city limits. And where at least 20% of the Union K.I.A. casualities occurred.