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<em>Charles “Freddie" Gerhardt</em> was born in Maryland, March 19, 1863, appointed a cadet at the United States Military Academy from North Carolina and admitted July 1, 1883.</div>
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He was well liked by his comrades; roomed for a time with Wirt Robinson; was studious and attentive to regulations; was graduated No. 48 in the class and was assigned to the 20th Infantry, serving with it in Montana for seven years. He married Miss Kate Watkins of Richmond, Virginia, on November 19, 1890. Shortly after they arrived at the post he left with his company for the Pine Ridge Indian Campaign in the winter of 1890-91. During his Montana service he was much interested in rifle practice and became a Distinguished Marksman.</div>
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He was detailed to Cumberland University at Lebanon, Tennessee, 1894-1897. While there he became Secretary of the U.S. Military Wheelmen, a civilian organization to develop the bicycle for military purposes. The young officer devised a uniform for them of limited visibility, the first step in this country in this direction.</div>
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Promoted to First Lieutenant in 1894 he was assigned to the 8th Infantry, joined his new regiment at Fort D. A. Russell, Wyoming, in 1897, and later was with it in Cuba for a year and a half. Promoted to Captain, March 2, 1899, and shortly thereafter was assigned to Company D, and remained its Captain for nine years.</div>
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In 1899, just as the Army was being filled with inexperienced officers from the Spanish-American War, Gerhardt wrote a Manual for Boards of Survey to help these young men who until that time, had no adequate guide for this work. This was before the days of typewriters. Recorders of these boards, usually subalterns, had to prepare three copies in long hand for each class of property. A single error required all pertaining to that class of property to be rewritten; a burdensome task for an inexperienced officer.</div>
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Left Cuba with his regiment in 1900 and went first to Fort Snelling, Minnesota, and then with his company to Fort William Henry Harrison, Montana, to remain until 1902 and then to Fort Gibbon, Alaska for two years.</div>
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On returning to the U.S., his company was stationed at Fort McHenry, Maryland, and remained there for six months. While there he requested the War Department to have a suitable tablet attached to the Post Flagstaff, to commemorate the birthplace of the “Star Spangled Banner.” This was done a few years later and the Fort is now a National Shrine.</div>
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His company was transferred to Columbus Barracks, Ohio, in 1905 and remained there a year. From 1906 to 1908 he was with his regiment in the Philippines. For one year he was in command at Ho Ho. On returning to the U.S., he and his company were attached to the Musketry School at Presidio of Monterey, California, for a few months.</div>
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He attended the Army Service Schools at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, graduating from the Army School of the Line in 1909 and from the Army Staff College in 1910. In the Summer of 1910 he coordinated a movement to establish a Field Officers Course at the Army Service Schools for the benefit of those who had not taken the regular course. This course proved of great value and many</div>
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of its graduates later became efficient general officers.</div>
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Charles Gerhardt joined the 10th Infantry as a Major in 1910 at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana, and accompanied it in 1911<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>to the Maneuver Division at Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and then to the Panama Canal Zone, where he remained for a year.</div>
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He attended the Army War College in 1912<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>and was graduated in 1913. He was detailed as instructor at the first Student Camp at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in the Summer of 1913 and while there initiated and, with the help of other officers there, developed an effective broad course for the rapid military training of young men in these camps. He returned to the Canal Zone for two more years with the 10th Infantry and was in 1916 detailed to the Infantry Desk in the Militia Bureau, Washington, D. C. He served there through the important period of mobilizing the National Guard, first for service on the Mexican Border and then for the World War. In 1916 he wrote and had introduced in Congress a bill for promotion by length of service; the system now in effect for the Medical Department and, somewhat modified, for the rest of the Army.</div>
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Charles Gerhardt was promoted to Co.'onel on May 4, 1917 and later assigned to the 4th Infantry, which he joined late in 1917 at Camp Greene, North Carolina, and then with it was sent to Camp Stuart, Virginia, where he built it up and trained it for service overseas. Sailing with the Regiment on April 6, 1918 to France, he was promoted to Brigadier General, National Army, while on the way across. His first assignment was to the Intermediate Section, S.O.S., and later to the organization and command of Base Section No. 7, with its ports of La-Rochelle LaPallice, and Rochefort sur Mer.</div>
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In October 1918 he was released for duty at the Front and was attached to the 35th Division for a period of orientation and instruction. The Armistice arrived as the period terminated. For a time he attended staff college at Langres and was later assigned to the 183rd Brigade, 92nd Division, which was returned to the U.S. early in 1919.<span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space: pre;"> </span>He was then given command of the 161st Depot Brigade at Camp Grant, Illinois, and made Chief of Demobilization there. On converting the Brigade into a compact demobilization unit and cutting down the time of demobilization from six days to two, he was called to Washington and helped organize and initiate a system of demobilization that saved much time and expense.</div>
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Next assigned as a Colonel to the 49th Infantry and Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, he later moved with the Regiment to Fort Snelling, Minnesota, where he served a year and was then assigned to the 36th Infantry at Camp Devens, Massachusetts, where he served another year. Then to the Army War College for a second course where he was graduated in 1922.</div>
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He was assigned to the 16th Infantry and served with it for two years and in 1924 was detailed as Chief of Staff, 76th Division, and served as such until March 19, 1927 when he was retired for age. Regained rank of Brigadier General by Act of Congress, approved June 21, 1930.</div>
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General Gerhardt was deeply religious and for years was an active communicant of St. Bernard’s Episcopal Church Bernardsville, New Jersey. He maintained an active interest in West Point, returning for June week yearly. His last attendance wad 1956.</div>
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Surviving are his daughter, Virginia, wife of Colonel John H. Stutesman, U.S. Army, Retired, and his son Major General Charles H. Gerhardt, U.S. Army, Retired. His funeral at Arlington National Cemetery was a military one with full honors and he is buried next to his wife, the late Kate Watkins of Richmond, Virginia, who died in 1951.</div>
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<em>—C. H. Gerhardt</em></div>