[note 1] The battle is considered one of the first Union victories of the Civil War, and marked the second engagement of troops in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

[6] In elections on August 5, 1861, Kentucky voters returned a veto-proof majority of pro-Union members to the House of Representatives and Senate.

Gen. Felix Zollicoffer's Confederates had moved from Tennessee to push from the Cumberland Gap into central Kentucky in an effort to gain control of that important border state.

As Battle's men approached Camp Johnson, they met a force of 300 pro-Union Home Guards under Capt.

[13][14] His men seized the camp, destroyed the buildings, and captured the arms and equipment left behind by the retreating recruits.

[15][16][note 4] Although Zollicoffer briefly withdrew to his camp at Cumberland Ford (at present-day Pineville, about 11 miles north of Cumberland Gap), [16] he sent a detachment of his men to drive off another Union Home Guard force at a camp at Laurel Bridge, in Laurel County, Kentucky soon after the Battle of Barboursville.

Gen. Thomas sent troops under Col. Theophilus T. Garrard to set up Camp Wildcat at Rockcastle Hills, near London, Kentucky, at the base of Wildcat Mountain 30 miles (48 km) north of the salt works, in order to secure the ford on the Rockcastle River, and to obstruct the Wilderness Road passing through the area.

Gen. Albin F. Schoepf with what amounted to a brigade of men to Col. Garrard, bringing the total Union force to about 7,000.

[20] The Union force awaited Zollicoffer's Confederate troops who had to pass the stronghold at Camp Wildcat to proceed into central Kentucky.

[22] Just before the attack, the companies from the 33rd Indiana were reinforced by 250 men of the 1st Kentucky Volunteer Cavalry Regiment (U.S.) and a small number of home guards.

[22] The Confederate regiments attacked the steep hill but after an hour of fighting the 11th Tennessee Infantry retreated.

The battlefield, about nine miles northwest of modern-day London, Kentucky, is located on land held by the Daniel Boone National Forest and is in private hands.