Full Name:
- August Valentine Kautz
Birth Date:
- January 5, 1828
Birth Location:
- Ispringen, Baden, Germany
Parents:
- Johann Georg and Dorthea Elisabetha (Lowing) Kautz
Education:
- United States Military Academy (1852)
Occupation:
- Military officer
Career Summary:
- Colonel (USA)
- Brigadier General (USVA)
- Brevet Major General (USA)
Spouse:
- Charlotte Tod (1865)
Nickname(s):
- Dutch
Place of Death:
- Seattle, Washington
Date of Death:
- September 4, 1895
Place of Burial:
- Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Virginia
Significance:
- August Kautz was the first of seven children of Johann Georg and Dorthea Elisabetha (Lowing) Kautz.
- August Kautz’s family immigrated to the United States in August 1828.
- August Kautz’s family moved to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1830.
- August Kautz’s family moved to Georgetown, Ohio in 1832.
- August Kautz attended the same subscription school that future U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant attended.
- August Kautz enlisted for one year as a private in the 1st Infantry Regiment of Ohio Volunteers when the Mexican-American War began in 1846.
- August Kautz served with Zachary Taylor’s army at the Battle of Monterey (July 7, 1846).
- August Kautz entered the United States Military Academy on July 1, 1848, and graduated four years later on July 1, 1852, placing thirty-fifth in his class of forty-three cadets.
- Following his graduation from West Point, August Kautz was brevetted as a second lieutenant, assigned to 4th Infantry Regiment, and garrisoned at Fort Columbus, New York.
- August Kautz campaigned against American Indians in the West from 1851 to 1859.
- August Kautz was advanced to the full rank of second lieutenant on March 24, 1853.
- August Kautz was wounded on October 25, 1855, while serving on a scouting party in the Rouge River Valley in Oregon.
- August Kautz was promoted to first lieutenant on December 4, 1855.
- August Kautz was wounded on March 1, 1856 during an engagement against American Indians at White River, Washington.
- August Kautz was sent to New York on recruiting duty for his regiment at the outbreak of the Civil War.
- August Kautz was promoted to captain in the newly-created 6th United States Cavalry Regiment on May 14, 1861, and assigned to the defenses of Washington, D.C.
- August Kautz served with the Army of the Potomac during Major General George B. McClellan’s Peninsula Campaign (March 17–August 14, 1862).
- August Kautz was promoted to colonel and transferred to the Western Theater with the 2nd Ohio Cavalry on September 10, 1862.
- August Kautz served as commander of Camp Chase, a Union prison and training facility in Columbus, Ohio, from December 25, 1862 to April 1863.
- August Kautz was brevetted to major general, effective June 9, 1863, for his “Gallant and Meritorious Services in Action at Monticello” on May 1, 1863.
- August Kautz commanded a cavalry brigade that participated in the pursuit of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan’s Raiders through Southern Ohio.
- August Kautz and his brigade played a major role in the Battle of Buffington Island, near Portland, Ohio, on July 19, 1863.
- August Kautz was named Chief of Cavalry of 23d Army Corps, in August 1863, serving on Brigadier General Mahlon D. Manson’s headquarters staff.
- August Kautz participated in the Knoxville Campaign, and Confederate General James Longstreet’s unsuccessful Siege of Knoxville.
- August Kautz was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on April 16, 1864, and assigned to Major General Benjamin Butler’s Army of the James.
- On April 20, 1864, Major General Benjamin Butler assigned August Kautz to command the Cavalry Division of the Army of the James.
- August Kautz was brevetted to lieutenant colonel in the regular army, effective June 9, 1864, for “for Gallant and Meritorious Services in an Attack on Petersburg.”
- From June 22 to July 1, 1864, August Kautz led his division on a foray into Eastern Virginia, known as the Wilson-Kautz Raid.
- August Kautz was brevetted to the rank of colonel in the regular army On October 7, 1864.
- August Kautz was brevetted to major general in the volunteer army on February 14, 1865, effective October 28, 1864, for “Gallant and Meritorious Services during the Campaign against Richmond.”
- August Kautz commanded the 1st Division, 25th Army Corps, from March until May 1865, during the occupation of Richmond.
- August Kautz was brevetted to brigadier general and major general in the regular army on March 13, 1865, for “Gallant and Meritorious Services in the Field during the Rebellion.”
- August Kautz served as one of nine members of the Military Commission that tried the accused conspirators in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.
- August Kautz married Charlotte Tod, daughter of former Ohio governor David Tod, on September 14, 1865. Mrs. Kautz died three years later.
- August Kautz was mustered out of the volunteer army on January 15, 1866. He remained in the regular army as a lieutenant colonel with 34th U.S. Infantry.
- August Kautz was transferred to 15th U.S. Infantry on March 15, 1869, and sent to New Mexico where he campaigned against the Apache Indians.
- August Kautz married Fannie Markbreit, of Cincinnati, in 1872,. Their marriage produced two children.
- August Kautz was promoted to colonel on July 8, 1874 and given command of the 8th U.S. Infantry.
- August Kautz was placed in command of the Department of Arizona on March 22, 1875.
- August Kautz was brought before a court-martial, on May 1, 1878, for publicly criticizing William McKee Dunn, judge advocate general of the U.S. Army. On June 4, he was acquitted of the charges.
- August Kautz was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on April 20, 1891.
- August Kautz commanded the Department of the Columbia from July 25, 1891 to January 5, 1892.
- August Kautz retired from the military on January 5, 1892.
- August Kautz died unexpectedly in Seattle, Washington, at the age of 67, on the night of September 4, 1895.
- Following a temporary burial in Seattle, August Kautz was permanently interred at Arlington National Cemetery.