In the summer of 1862, the Union Army of Virginia existed for less than three months, and General Franz Sigel's 1st Corps camped here at Sperryville for about a third of that time during a quiet interlude before heavy involvement in the 2nd Manassas Campaign. About half of Sigel's force came from Louis Blenker's division, including 8,000 German and other European troops who had already seen severe losses at Cross Keys on June 8. Two divisions under Generals Carl Schurz and Robert Schenck camped here, while Adolph von Steinwehr's division guarded Thornton Gap and Robert Milroy's independent brigade held Woodville. Oak Hill, above Reynolds Memorial Baptist Church, served as Sigel's headquarters, and his camp lay near Crooked Run Baptist Church. Sigel and his staff took tea with Carolyn Homasel Thornton at Montpelier, where she played Bonnie Blue Flag and Dixie on the piano and Sigel answered with several pieces of his own. Colonel Gustave Cluseret conducted reconnaissance toward Madison and aggressively requisitioned crops under General John Pope's orders that the army live off the land. Blenker, who had organized the 8th New York Infantry and led the German Division that became the basis of Sigel's Corps, was forced into retirement soon after Sigel took command and died soon afterward. Sigel, born in Baden, Germany, in 1824, had served in the German army, taken part in the failed 1848 revolution against Prussia, immigrated to the United States in 1852, and rose from brigadier general in August 1861 to major general in March 1862 before serving in Missouri, Arkansas, the Shenandoah Valley, and at the Second Battle of Manassas. During the campaign, Sigel passed through Warrenton, was delayed by confusion in orders at Cedar Mountain, burned Waterloo Bridge to deny it to the Confederates, and on August 19 burned a bridge here on the Rappahannock, then on August 23 nearly trapped Jubal Early's Confederates on the east side before a new bridge allowed their escape; Captain Ulric Dahlgren had earlier discovered on August 21 that Confederates had crossed east of the river when his patrol was surprised. Lee's army, led by Jackson, bypassed this area by crossing the Rappahannock upstream at Hinson's Ford on the way to the 2nd Battle of Manassas, where brigades of Alexander Schimmelfennig and Wladimir Krzyzanowski from Schurz's division fought heavily against Stonewall Jackson near Sudley Springs. After the defeated Union retreat through places including Centerville and Fairfax Courthouse toward Washington, Sigel's Corps ceased to exist near Georgetown, and most of its units became the basis of the newly formed 11th Corps of the Army of the Potomac. The corps' German troops were known for music, patriotism, and pride, but later became scapegoats after Chancellorsville; they also faced prejudice from Anglo-Americans, though their beer sometimes overcame that barrier.
