By Andrew Wallace

By 1875 the federal government had brought nearly all hostile Indians in Arizona Territory onto federal reservations, and that year Gen. George Crook, who had directed their pacification, departed for the Northern Plains to help subdue the Sioux.  His successor was already at Fort Whipple: Col. August Valentine Kautz took over the Arizona military department with his Civil War rank of major general.

Born in Germany in 1828, Kautz was brought by his parents at four years of age to Brown County, Ohio, where his father was a pioneer wine grower.  Upon the outbreak of war with Mexico in 1846 young Gus joined the First Ohio Volunteers and served with Zachery Taylor’s army as a private soldier at the Battle of Monterey.  After the war he gained appointment to West Point and graduated with Phil Sheridan and George Crook in 1852.  They all served on the Northwest frontier where Kautz was the first to climb Mount Rainier.  In 1860 he received promotion to captain in the 6th U.S. Cavalry, one of three new cavalry regiments created just as South Carolina was about to start a civil war.  Because Regular Army promotion was glacially slow in 1861 he—and a flood of would-be volunteer generals—swamped legislatures of loyal states for appointments in volunteer units where promotion was rapid.  Captain Kautz quickly obtained leave from the army to accept a commission in the 2d Ohio Cavalry.

When the Civil War ended Kautz was a brigadier general and in September 1865 he married Charlotte Todd, daughter of former Ohio governor David Todd.  Although Kautz had been a famous cavalry leader in the war, in the postwar reduction of the army he wound up as a lieutenant colonel of infantry.  In 1866 he was on duty in Mississippi where his wife died of typhoid fever.  They had no children and his life was now empty.

Brevet Major General August V. Kautz, commanding officer of the military
department of Arizona, 1875-1878 (Photo Courtesy of Andrew Wallace).

In 1870 Kautz was sent to Newport Barracks, Kentucky, on recruiting duty,
a plum assignment that included no troops nor close supervision.  The 
closest superior headquarters was in St. Louis and his orders came 
directly from Washington.  Best of all, most of his time was free and he
could indulge the social life of Cincinnati across the Ohio river.  
There he soon succumbed to the charms of Miss Fannie Markbreit, doyen of
Cincinnati society whose brother was the first professional chief of 
police in a U.S. city.  She was 21 years his junior yet she thought Gus a
prize catch.  They married in 1872 and soon had a baby daughter.

Now, in 1875, with command of the Arizona department and comfortable quarters at Fort Whipple, Kautz inherited a nest of knotty problems: Indian reservations, corrupt army officers, and renegade Apaches who raided from Mexico.  Isolated and populated mainly by mining interests, Prescott nevertheless had comfortable climate and was not threatened by hostile Indians after Crook’s 1872 campaign.  Crook had also induced most tribesmen onto reservations and greatly strengthened his armed force by forming companies of Apache scouts.

The Arizona military department stretched across southern California to San Diego, with headquarters at Whipple Barracks in Prescott where Fannie enlivened local society.  She founded a theatrical troupe and sponsored dance “hops” for the local citizens.  A fine musician herself, she sponsored musical soirees to counter the Prescott saloon culture.  The general rarely participated, preferring to invest in mines and write letters to the press.

Kautz was especially critical of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.  Federal policy was to have the Bureau, part of the U.S. Interior Department, appoint civilians to manage reservations, four of them in Arizona.  Finding Indian agents, however, proved difficult and Gen. Crook had been authorized to appoint army officers who now came under Gen. Kautz’ control.  Meanwhile, President Ulysses Grant was persuaded to allow various churches to sponsor agents.  The Dutch Reformed Church in New York named 24-year-old John P. Clum to take over the San Carlos reservation and teach Apaches to be farmers.  Clum distrusted the army and soon started the first Indian police force.  Thus began the “peace policy” in Arizona

[Next Sunday: Gen. Kautz encounters problems with Indian Agent Clum, various politicians, and southern Arizona newspaper editors.]

(Days Past is a collaborative project of the Sharlot Hall Museum and the Prescott Corral of Westerners, International (www.prescottcorral.org). The public is encouraged to submit articles for Days Past consideration. Please contact Assistant Archivist, Scott Anderson, at SHM Archives 928-445-3122 or via email at archivesrequest@sharlothallmuseum.org for information.)