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Born at Province of Baden, Germany near Pforzheim, January 5, 1828. Pforzheim is capital of Baden; another source relates that was born in Ispringen in same province. SinceIspringen cannot be found in any contemporary gazetter, reader may at least relate Pforzheim to a map location; it is assumed that Ispringen was or is in the vicinity.
In the year of his birth, or soon thereafter, parents emigrated to Brown County, Ohio, via Baltimore, Maryland. He attended school in Georgetown, Ohio, and during the first year of Mexican War served as a Private, 1st Ohio Infantry. A Year after discharge, he was appointed to the United States Military Academy, where he graduated in the class of 1852.
He served for number of years in Pacific Northwest, where was twice wounded in operations against Indians. With the reorganization of the Regular Army in May 1861 he was made a Captain of the new 6th United States Cavalry, and served in the Washington, DC defense and most creditably in McClellan's Peninsular Campaign.
In September 1862, he was appointed Colonel of the 2nd Ohio Cavalry Volunteer Regiment and was sent to Fort Scott on the Kansas frontier. In the following year, after some duty in command of Camp Chase, Ohio, he took part in the pursuit and capture of Confederate General John Hunt Morgan in the course of latter's raid into Kentucky and Indiana.
From April 1864 March 1865 he commanded a Division of Cavalry in Benjamin F. Butler's Army of the James, having been made Brigadier General of Volunteers on May 7, 1864. He took part in a number of operations against various Confederate lines of supply coming into Richmond and Petersburg, including the fight at Ream's Station on June 29, 1864, during James Harrison Wilson's raid. In none of these actions was he substantially successful, and in March 1865 was shifted to command of a Division of Negro troops in XXV Corps at the head of which he entered the Confederate capital on April 3, 1865. In May and June he had dubious distinction of being one of members of military commission which acted out farce of “trying” the conspirators in assassination of Abraham Lincoln. With brevets of Major General in both the Regular Army and the Volunteers, he became Lieutenant Colonel of 34th US Infantry in 1866, Colonel of the 8th US Infantry in 1874, and Brigadier General, US Army, 1891. Meanwhile, he commanded effectively at various Indian posts on frontier and wrote several military treatises. He was the brother of Rear Admiral Albert Kautz.
He died at Seattle, Washington, September 4, 1895, and was buried in Section 2, Grave, 992, of Arlington National Cemetery. His wife, Fannie Markbreit Kautz, who died on August 11, 1913, is buried with him. His son, Austin Kautz, Captain, United States Navy, is also buried in Arlington National Cemetery.
REMAINS OF GENERAL KAUTZ INTERRED
WASHINGTON, June 22, 1899 – The remains of the late General August V. Kautz arrived here today from Seattle, Washington, and were interred in Arlington with appropriate military honors.
General Kautz was a brother os Admiral Kautz, and died in 1895.
Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history. Many of his articles can be found on renowned portals like the New York Times, Washingtonpost or Wikipedia.
Reviewed by: Michael Howard