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Following his contentious June 11 meeting with Governor Claiborne Jackson and General Sterling Price at the Planters House Hotel in St. Louis, General Nathaniel Lyon began a campaign to secure Missouri’s capital and bring the Missouri State Guard to battle. A portion of Lyon’s army sailed up the Missouri River and captured Jefferson City without opposition on June 15. Two days later, Lyon routed Governor Jackson’s State Guardsmen at Boonville. Jackson and his troops moved southwest, hoping to escape from Lyon and obtain assistance from Confederate forces camped just across the border in Arkansas.

In the meantime, another column of Lyon's army under Captain Thomas Sweeny and Colonel Franz Sigel left St. Louis and moved to Springfield in order to block Jackson’s escape. Sigel pushed west and met the State Guard north of the town of Carthage on July 5. The State Guard drove the outnumbered Federals through town and forced them to retreat. Sigel returned to Springfield, while the State Guardsmen joined their commander, Sterling Price, at Cowskin Prairie in McDonald County, Missouri, and began to train for their next encounter with the Federals.

Lyon had envisioned working in concert with Sigel to trap the State Guard in a giant pincer movement, but heavy rain and a lack of transportation kept him in Boonville until early July. Lyon finally left Boonville and moved to Clinton, where he joined a contingent of U.S. Regulars and volunteers led by Major Samuel Sturgis. He then led the column to Springfield, and united his force with Sigel’s on July 13.

The Southerners were soon on the move as well. General Benjamin McCulloch’s Confederate brigade of Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas soldiers and General Nicholas Pearce’s Arkansas State Troops crossed into Missouri in late July, and Price moved his State Guardsmen from Cowskin Prairie to join McCulloch and Pearce in Cassville. The combined Southern army moved toward Springfield. Lyon left Springfield to challenge the Southerners, but after a series of skirmishes, including one at Dug Springs on August 2, he retreated back to Springfield. McCulloch and Price led their force of over 10,000 into camp along Wilson's Creek and prepared to attack Lyon in Springfield. On August 9, Lyon decided to march against his enemies before they could move against him. The stage was set for the second major battle of the Civil War.