TheVIII Army Corps (German:VIII. Armee-Korps) was a mixedcorps of thearmy of theGerman Confederation (theBundesheer), which was made up of contingents fromWürttemberg,Baden andHesse. Until 1830[A 1] contingents fromHohenzollern-Sigmaringen,Hohenzollern-Hechingen andLiechtenstein also belonged to this corps.[1]
The Corps was intended to assemble onmobilisation.[A 2] In peacetime no specific units or formations were assigned to it; only the strengths of the individual contingents were laid down.
Thecommandant of the mixed corps was appointed by joint agreement of the contributing nations. The individual states appointed the commanders of the subordinate units.
The lack of standardization of theBundesheer was also reflected in the VIII Corps. It had no standard regulations, the rank badges differed from another as did the "promotion criteria, wages and salaries, the rations, the norms for general service and the operation of the military justice system, the lengths of service and the methods of reimbursement were also different. ... even in 1859 the Württemberg attack signal was the same as the Baden signal to withdraw."[2] The VIII Army Corps only had an understanding of the need to introduceweapons of the same calibre and train in joint manoeuvres.[3]
The Corps had a planned order of battle of twodivisions each of twobrigades, each with tworegiments.
The planned strengths of the contingents are given below[4]
| Federal state | Elements | Total | Jäger | Infantry | Cavalry | Artillery | Engineers | Guns |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Württemberg | Various | 13,955 | 10,826 | 1,994 | 1,145 | 18 | ||
| Baden | Various | 10,000 | 7,751 | 1,429 | 820 | 20 | ||
| Hesse-Darmstadt | Various | 6,195 | 4,820 | 885 | 508 | 12 |
In addition, until 1830 there were the following:
| Federal state | Elements | Total | Jäger | Infantry | Cavalry | Artillery | Engineers | Guns |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen | 2companies | 356 | 356 | |||||
| Hohenzollern-Hechingen | 1 company | 155 | 155 | |||||
| Liechtenstein | 1platoon | 55 | 55 |
The Corps' mobilisation for theCrimean War in 1855 and theUpper Italian War in 1859 both proved to be a disaster. "An atmosphere of depressing amateurism reigned at theheadquarters of the VIII Army Corps in Stuttgart; this applied even more to its troops which had few trained or even useful men. The mobilised army conveyed the impression of a rusty mess. Although it had given itself three months to mobilise instead of the allocated four weeks, it was still only partly ready for war."[5]
In theFirst Schleswig War of 1848–1851 and in the fighting in theBaden Revolution, only individual elements of the Corps from the contingent-sending states were deployed (e.g. theNeckar Corps).
In theAustro-Prussian War the Corps took part in theCampaign of the Main. But even the appointment of the commander of the VIII Army Corps led to conflict between the "allies" in 1866. BothPrince William of Baden (the younger brother ofGrand Duke Frederick), as well asPrince Frederick of Württemberg (a cousin of the King of Württemberg) contended for the command.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. This was eventually accepted under duress after Austria had released him from his oath of allegiance to Austria.[6] This appointment was then made on 14 June 1866 by King Charles I of Württemberg, who had the formal right to do so. Alexander received his appointment on 16 June and was sworn in on 18 June in Darmstadt. In his own words he accepted the command "with very little hope and only extremely unwillingly".[7] The chief of the general staff was the Württemberg lieutenant general,Fidel von Baur-Breitenfeld. The army corps was not fully up to strength until 9 July (i.e. about a week after the decisiveBattle of Königgrätz). After the VIII Corps had also been allocated troops from theElectorate of Hesse and theDuchy of Nassau (originally part of the IX Corps) and an Austrian brigade (formerly garrisoning theGerman Federal Fortresses), units of 6 sovereign states were now members of this formation. As early as 9 August – after a failed campaign – Alexander resigned his command and felt it necessary to publish his campaign journal[7] in order to defend himself from the numerous attacks on his leadership. The Corps, together with the VII Army Corps of the Confederation, which was entirely made up of Bavarian Army troops, formed the "West German Army". This was placed on 28 June 1866 under the command of the 71-year-old PrinceCharles of Bavaria. Its chief of the general staff wasLudwig von der Tann-Rathsamhausen – an opponent of the German "war of brothers".
On 1 June 1866, military representatives of the south German central powers met inMunich. Baden, Württemberg and Hesse-Darmstadt pledged about 45,000 men for the campaign – in fact these states only provided about 35,000 men, and then only in early August instead of mid-June. After the Battle of Königgrätz they lost the will for unity, so that theCampaign of the Main was doomed to failure from the start and the battles ofFrohnhofen,Aschaffenburg,Hundheim,Tauberbischofsheim,Werbach, andGerchsheim 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.
Nevertheless, the losses of the corps amounted to 402 dead, 1,439 wounded, 118 prisoners 2,444 missing; the number of missing men almost certainly including more deaths.[7]: 39
Order of battle of the VIII Federal Army Corps in contemporary illustrations:
