The VIII Corps of the Grande Armée was a French military unit that existed during the Napoleonic Wars.

Marshal André Masséna's Army of Italy was also reorganized as the VIII Corps at the end of the 1805 campaign.

The corps was reformed for the 1806 campaign under Mortier and spent the rest of the year mopping up Prussian garrisons in western Germany.

Mortier's task was to operate on the north bank of the Danube and protect the French army's strategic left flank.

[2] On 11 November 1805, Mortier with the 5,000 men of Gazan's division bumped into a greatly superior force of Russians and Austrians.

In the Battle of Dürenstein, Gazan suffered 3,000 casualties but was saved from annihilation when Dupont's division arrived later in the day.

[4] Even after his decisive triumph at Austerlitz, Napoleon believed Archduke Charles' large army to be a threat.

Together with troops from the Kingdom of Holland under King Louis Bonaparte, the corps defended against a westward thrust by Prussian forces in the former Electorate of Hanover.

[6] On 17 October 1806, Napoleon ordered Mortier to seize Fulda while Louis was to capture Paderborn and Münster.

From these locations they would converge on Kassel whose ruler, William I, Elector of Hesse the emperor wished to depose.

[7] On 1 November, Mortier entered Kassel from the south with General Loison's 5,500-man division composed of three French light infantry regiments.

Though Dumonceau's 6,000 soldiers outnumbered by General Karl Ludwig von Lecoq's 10,000 defenders, the operation was a success.

[9] General Anne Jean Marie René Savary showed up on 19 November 1806 with a preliminary armistice in which all Prussian fortresses were to be surrendered.

[15] At the Battle of Valutino on 18 August 1812, the VIII Corps was ordered to cross the Dnieper River and block the retreat of the Russian Army toward Moscow.

After taking a long time to cross the river, Junot failed to advance any farther, allowing the Russians to escape.

[20] In the following year, Prince Józef Poniatowski was appointed to command the VIII Corps, which was rebuilt as an all-Polish unit.

[21] Marshal Joachim Murat assumed command of a wing that included the II, V, and VIII Corps plus cavalry.

[24] During the rear guard fighting on the 19th, a panicky sapper prematurely blew up the bridge over the White Elster River, trapping the VII, VIII, and XI Corps in Leipzig.