During the battle of Pittsburg Landing, a position of great importance had to be held at all hazards. The tide of battle was temporarily against the Union arms, and men were falling everywhere, while pandemonium reigned. At this juncture, Col. Job R. Parker, commanding the Forty-eighth Ohio, was directed to seize and hold the coveted position. This he did amid the most unfavorable and demoralizing surroundings, and received the compliments of General Sherman for his valiant services. This was the first battle in which the regiment participated, and a very trying initiation into the horrors of war. Colonel Parker, and his invincible regiment, received the most flattering encomiums, not only in his home city of Chillicothe, but in the army, where the gallant service could be more fully appreciated by those already driven to the last ditch by superior numbers.
The County of Ross, Henry Holcomb Bennett, ed.
The 48th Ohio
was in Grant's Army of the Tennessee, Sherman's Division and
Buckland's Brigade at the Battle of Shiloh. Each of these men and the regimental officers
who served under them wrote official reports of the battle. The
reports are of considerable interest both because they were written
when the details of the two day battle were still fresh in the
minds of the officers that wrote them and because the political
hornet's nest that resulted from Shiloh had not yet been perturbed
so the reports are less likely to be tainted by attempts to defend
against criticism of their author's actions than later accounts
of the battle by the same men.
Sherman's report offers an excellent overview
of the battle in his division's sector. His report is so well
done as to be self explanatory to anyone with a good map of the
battle field. Buckland served as both commander of the Fourth
Brigade and Colonel of the 72nd Ohio Regiment. His report adds
some detail to Sherman's report especially with regard to Colonel
Sullivan, his immediate subordinate, but it deals primarily with
his own regiment-the 72nd. Unfortunately for those interested
in the Forty-eighth Ohio Volunteer Infantry Lieut. Col. Parker
who wrote the report for this regiment was a man of few words.
His report is brief, lacking in detail, and relatively uninformative.
However, the flow of the battle for the 48th can be pieced together
by following the very complete reports for the other two regiments
in Buckland's Brigade. Both the Regimental History of the 48th
Ohio and F. M. Posegate's description of the first day of battle
describe the initial action of the 48th Ohio in detail. After
the initial maneuver that placed the 48th on the left of the
70th the two regiments were together through the rest of the
battle and the general description of the battle seen by Col.
Joseph R. Cockerill for the 70th also fits the 48th. Col. Cockerill's
report on the 70th is complete and informative. At a critical
point in the battle Buckland's Brigade was flanked. This situation
resulted from actions that occurred in the brigade to the Left
of Buckland's. Sherman's report makes it clear what happened
but considerable additional detail may be gained by reading the
report of Lieut. Col. Fulton of the 53rd Ohio. This report also
offers an interesting contrast because it shows a regiment that
was scattered during the first day of the battle. Two of the
53rd's companies that did not run fought with the 48th much of
the first day.
