In July 1862, Gen. John Pope brought the first hint of total war, in a mild form by later standards, to Rappahannock County residents through a new Union policy meant to inflict intense pain on civilians who supported the Southern cause, and it was particularly acute in Sperryville. In General Order No. 5, issued on July 17, Pope announced that, as far as practicable, his troops would subsist upon the country and that vouchers would be given to owners only if they had been loyal citizens of the United States. In General Order No. 11, issued on July 23, he declared that anyone who had taken the oath of allegiance to the United States and violated it would be shot and have property seized for public use. These orders echoed the Second Confiscation Act of July 17, 1862, supported and promulgated by President Abraham Lincoln, which made the estate, property, money, stock, credits, and slaves of people engaged in armed rebellion liable to seizure, making it one of the steps that led to the Emancipation Proclamation. Many senior Union officers opposed the act and Pope's orders because they believed they would reduce discipline among the troops, but ordinary soldiers supported them enthusiastically. Members of Gen. Franz Sigel's Corps, camped at Sperryville, were especially vigorous in taking livestock, produce, and personal property from local farms. Although Pope later issued more temperate orders, the hard hand of war had now been applied to civilians. On the night of July 16, 1862, two soldiers and a black servant of the 1st New York Light Artillery entered a house near Sperryville and raped a slave; they were quickly apprehended, tried, and found guilty, but the black servant received five years at hard labor while the white men received two.