Description

General August Valentine Kautz (b.1828 - d.1895) was born in Baden, Germany on January 5,1828. His parents were Johann Georg Kautz and Dorothea Elisabetha Kautz, both born in Germany.

Augustus immigrated to Brown County, Ohio with his parents. He joined the Army and his first military action was in the Mexican American War. After the war, he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point and graduated in 1852. He went on to serve in the Pacific Northwest. There he married a Nisqually woman, named Kitty, and they had two sons. Eventually, Augustus went east to fight for the Union in the Civil War.

In 1865, he married Charlotte Tod in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. She died of typhoid fever three years later.

He was active in the pursuit of General Robert E. Lee in the last days of the war. After the assasination of President Abraham Lincoln, he served on the military commission that tried the conspirators. He went on to serve as Commander of the Department of Arizona and to serve as Commander of Fort McDowell in Arizona.

On November 27, 1872 he married his third wife, Fannie Markbreit who had talents in dramatics, singing and painting.

In August, 1874, Augustus was transferred to Fort Whipple, Arizona Territory.

Augustus authored several army manuals on duties and customs which were adopted by the U.S. military. He retired from the military in 1892 with the rank of Brigadier General.

He died in Seattle, Washington on September 5, 1895 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

Handwriting on photograph reads: "As Colonel, 8th Infantry, he was commanding office, Department of Arizona, 1875 - 1877. He orderd the establishment of Fort Huachuca in 1877."

Sources: findagrave.com; National Park Service; German, Lutheran Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1500-1971; United States Registers of Enlistments in the United States Army, 1798-1914; Ohio, County Marriages, 1789-2016.