In the context of the fighting in the Austro-Prussian War, Central Germany was a secondary theater of war. From the beginning, the Prussian army concentrated its main forces against the Austrian army in Bohemia and Moravia . On the other hand, only a 50,000-strong army under General von Falckenstein was deployed against the West and South German allies of Austria, which essentially consisted of four divisions. The federal armed forces opposing this association should theoretically have consisted of 120,000 soldiers in four corps. By slowly mobilizing themand positioned far apart, the offensively operating Prussian troops succeeded in preventing the assembly of federal troops north of the low mountain range. Only the VII Federal Corps provided by the Bavarian Army and the VIII Federal Corps from Baden, Hessian, Nassau, Austrian and Württemberg troops were set up. On paper the corps were 46,000 and 40,000 strong, respectively.
