Armee-Korps) was a mixed corps of the army of the German Confederation (the Bundesheer), which was made up of contingents from Württemberg, Baden and Hesse.
"[2] The VIII Army Corps only had an understanding of the need to introduce weapons of the same calibre and train in joint manoeuvres.
"An atmosphere of depressing amateurism reigned at the headquarters of the VIII Army Corps in Stuttgart; this applied even more to its troops which had few trained or even useful men.
Austria, however, wanted to fill the post with its own candidate and pushed for the appointment of one of the allied officers in Austrian service, Lieutenant Field Marshal Alexander of Hesse-Darmstadt.
After the VIII Corps had also been allocated troops from the Electorate of Hesse, the Duchy of Nassau and an Austrian brigade, units of 6 sovereign states were now members of this formation.
Its chief of the general staff was Ludwig von der Tann-Rathsamhausen – an opponent of the German "war of brothers".
After the Battle of Königgrätz they lost the will for unity, so that the Campaign of the Main was doomed to failure from the start and the battles of Frohnhofen, Aschaffenburg, Hundheim, Tauberbischofsheim, Werbach, and Gerchsheim were merely an accompaniment to the efforts already initiated everywhere to establish a cease-fire, with each of the central powers only pursuing its own interests.