Confederate Major General Thomas C. Hindman, commander of the Trans-Mississippi Department, had ordered his troops to put down bushwhackers in southwest Missouri and northwest Arkansas.

Gen. James G. Blunt and his Cherokee, Indiana, and Kansas troops from the First Division of the Army of the Frontier attacked Col. Douglas H. Cooper and his Confederate command on Beatties Prairie near Old Fort Wayne at 7:00 a.m. on October 22, 1862.

The Confederates put up stiff resistance for a half-hour, but overwhelming numbers forced them to retire from the field in haste, leaving artillery and other equipment behind.

After weeks of recruiting to bolster their numbers, Cooper led his men through Indian Territory to Old Fort Wayne, an abandoned pre-war Federal military garrison on the southern edge of the sprawling Beatties Prairie.

Word had been received that Cooper, accompanied by Stand Watie's two Cherokee Indian Regiments, was at Maysville, and scouts reported his total force to be about 7,000 men.

However, he pushed forward the 2nd Kansas Cavalry, which struck the Confederates at 5 a.m. at Maysville, while the balance of the division was sleeping, nearly 7 miles (11 km) back.

After driving in the pickets at Maysville, the Union cavalry followed them three and 1.5 miles (2.4 km) into the Indian Territory, where they encountered Cooper's main Confederate battleline, aligned along an east and west road, facing north, with a dense wood at their backs.