It was among scores of regiments that were raised in the summer of 1864 as Hundred Days Men, an effort to augment existing manpower for an all-out push to end the war within 100 days.

The 48th Iowa Infantry was organized as Companies A, B, and C at Davenport, Iowa, and mustered in for one-hundred days federal service on July 13, 1864, as part of a plan to raise short term regiments for service as rear area garrison duty to release veteran troops for Sherman's Atlanta Campaign.

As there were not enough recruits to complete an entire regiment in the time allotted, the unit was redesignated a battalion.

The battalion spent its entire service guarding prisoners of war at the Rock Island Barracks, Illinois.

This article about a specific military unit of the American Civil War is a stub.