Early in the war, the town of Dayton, Missouri gained a reputation as an enclave for Southern sympathizers and a fertile recruiting area for the secessionist Missouri State Guard.
After hearing of Missouri State Guard recruitment activities in Dayton, Missouri, Union Colonel Charles R. Jennison sends the Seventh Kansas Cavalry to the town.
After losing the Battle of Dry Wood Creek, Free-State leader and Colonel James H. Lane guides his 3rd, 4th, and 5th Kansas Volunteers in the sacking of Osceola, Missouri.
Fresh off a victory at Wilson's Creek, the Missouri State Guard under command of Major General Sterling "Pap" Price advances toward Fort Scott, in southeastern Kansas.
Border ruffians led by Charles Hamilton, a settler from Georgia, round up known Free-Staters and open fire on them in a ravine northeast of Trading Post, Kansas.
James H. Lane leads a force of jayhawkers against Hickory Point, a proslavery settlement in Jefferson County, Kansas, that recently supported an attack against Grasshopper Falls.