Following the Battle of Wilson's Creek, the Missouri State Guard, a pro-Confederate militia organization, drove north and defeated a Federal (Union) force in the Siege of Lexington.

Following the fighting at Lexington, Federal Major General John C. Frémont began a campaign that drove into southern Missouri.

Having lost the element of surprise in a clash with a small group of Missouri State Guardsmen, Zagonyi detoured his men to the west.

The exact details of the battle are unknown, but Zagonyi's men drove off Frazier's troops before entering Springfield and withdrawing north at around the time darkness fell.

[8] He brought with him a number of foreign-born officers, one of whom was the Hungarian Major Charles Zagonyi, who recruited a cavalry unit intended to serve as a bodyguard for Frémont.

[10] While the Confederate forces returned to Arkansas after Wilson's Creek, Price moved his militia north to the Missouri River town of Lexington.

[13] In response to the fall of Lexington, Frémont developed an unrealistic offensive plan that involved a thrust all the way down to New Orleans, Louisiana.

The historian Louis Gerteis state that Frazier had an effective force of about 1,000 badly armed and trained men,[18] although Zagonyi believed he faced 2,000 to 2,200 enemy soldiers.

[18] To the north of the Missouri State Guard position was a road, to the south was a lane with fences along the sides, and in front of it was Crane Creek.

[22] Writing of the ensuing engagement, Starr states that "The truth of what happened in Springfield on this October day is lost beyond recovery",[23] and Miller notes that Zagonyi's account of the action was intentionally inaccurate to glorify his troops at the expense of the Prairie Scouts.

Under Miller's account, the Guardsmen fled toward Neosho, with Zagonyi's men entering Springfield, but withdrawing north towards Bolivar at dark, having abandoned his wounded.

[26] The historians Phillip W. Steele and Steve Cottrell describe the battle as an unsuccessful charge by Zagonyi followed by a second successful one, and then the Federals chasing the Guardsmen through both Springfield and the surrounding rural areas.

[28] Zagonyi's report also claimed that he had raised a United States flag in Springfield, but Miller notes that there is evidence that suggests this is inaccurate.

A postwar secondhand account written by Confederate officer William Preston Johnston claimed that Frazier had lost only two or three men.