Born in Ispringen, Baden, Germany,[1] Kautz immigrated with his parents to Brown County, Ohio in 1832.

In the 1850s he married a Nisqually woman named Tenas Puss (Little Kitten) called Etta or Kitty in English.

In August 1860, under Major George A. H. Blake's command, he traveled with recruits on a march from Fort Benton to Fort Vancouver, commanding a detachment of 150 recruits, which broke off from the main group at Coeur d'Alene, Idaho to begin service at Colville Depot, Washington Territory.

[3][4] He returned to the Eastern United States in April 1861, shortly after the outbreak of hostilities between the Union and Confederacy.

Transferred to the Western Theater, Kautz later assisted in operations as a colonel with the 2nd Ohio Cavalry against Confederate General John Hunt Morgan's raid behind Union lines in Indiana and Ohio during June–July 1863 and under the command of Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside at the Battle of Knoxville from September to December 1863.

[7] In early April 1865, Kautz marched into Richmond in command of a division of colored troops which belonged to Godfrey Weitzel's XXV Corps.

After the war, Kautz served (from May to June 1865) on the trial board investigating the conspirators involved in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, before performing extensive service in the southwest frontier.