While both armies regrouped Captain Sweeny and the remainder of his troops arrived in Springfield from Rolla. General Lyon's army, slowed by a lack of transportation arrived in Springfield. Both sides planned for their next tactical maneuver. General Price's Missouri State Guard joined the Confederate troops gathered in Arkansas under General Ben McCulloch, and assumed the offensive against Lyon.

    However, as the combined armies of General Price and General Ben McCulloch approached the town General Lyon went on the offensive, striking a blow against the Southerners at Dug's Spring on July 25 and McCaulla's Store on July 27 after which Lyon retreated back to Springfield. The combined Southern army advanced and camped at Wilsons Creek twelve miles southeast of Springfield.

    On August 10 General Lyon's Federals once again surprised his adversary and launched a surprise attack on the Southern camps. Initially routed by assaults at both ends of their encampments, the Southerners rallied and blunted General Lyon's main column, and then defeated Colonel Sigel's flanking column. Late in the morning General Lyon was killed, and the remaining Federal leadership decided to retreat. The Southerners were too disorganized and lacking in material to follow the beleaguered Federals to Rolla.

    Both sides retrofitted after the fighting. Missouri State Guard General Price decided to raid the central portion of the state in September. The Missouri State Guard was victorious in an action at Drywood Creek (Sept. 2). During his raid Price surrounded a group of Federals at Lexington and launched a series of attacks called the Battle of the Hemp Bales (Sept. 20). Lacking water and reinforcements the Union soldiers surrendered to General Price. A Union force led by General John C. Fremont forced General Price to withdraw from the region. General Fremont's expedition carried the war back into southwest Missouri, and ended with a successful attack by Major Charles Zagoyni's cavalry charge into Springfield on October 25. Major Zagoyni liberated the town from the Southerners, but the Federals were unwilling to extend their supply line and fell back to Rolla and Sedalia. On the same day seventy miles southwest in Neosho a pro-Southern political meeting voted Missouri out of the Union and made it a star on the Confederate flag.

    On November 7, a different cast of characters became involved in Missouri's fighting. General Ulysses S. Grant crossed the Mississippi River and attacked Confederate troops stationed at Belmont in southeast Missouri. After initial success General Grant was forced to retreat to Cairo, Illinois. Winter weather ended campaigning in the state for the year.