General Charles Gould Treat, whose distinguished military career included service in the Spanish-American War and World War I, was born in Orono, Maine, on December 30, 1859. During the following year his father, J. B. Treat, moved the family to Monroe, Wisconsin, where the elder Treat had a distinguished career in business and politics.
Charles Treat graduated from Monroe High School in 1878 and enrolled at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, graduating in 1882 with the rank of second lieutenant. Treat was assigned to the artillery, the branch of the army with which he was to be primarily connected for twenty years. After various assignments at southern and western posts with the 5th Artillery, he served as aide to General O. O. Howard in New York City and in 1894 returned to duty with the 5th Artillery. In 1896 he was appointed adjutant and ordnance officer at Fort Riley. During the Spanish-American War Treat served as adjutant of the Light Artillery Brigade, and he saw action at San Juan Hill and Santiago. Shortly after the war he won his captaincy.
In 1900, after a brief stint with the 7th Artillery, Treat was appointed senior artillery instructor and then commandant of cadets at West Point, a position which he continued to hold until 1905. Then followed service with the 15th Field Battery and a two-year appointment as inspector general with the Army of Cuban Pacification in Havana. Treat returned to the United States in 1908 to serve at various locations with the 3rd Field Artillery. During 1910 and 1911 he studied at the Army War College in Washington, D.C., and at the Field Artillery School and then received his promotion to colonel. In 1911 he was placed in command of the Army's Southern Division with headquarters at Fort Sam Houston. From 1914 to 1916 he was on the General Staff in Washington, D.C., where he was acting chief of the War College. In 1916 Treat was promoted to brigadier general and appointed commander of the First Hawaiian Brigade in Hawaii.
In August 1917 Treat was promoted to major general and given command of the 37th Division at Fort Sheridan. This duty was interrupted later in the year when he was sent to France to study the British and French forces for the American Expeditionary Force. Back in the United States late in 1917, Treat returned to Camp Sheridan and command of the 37th Division until April 1918. Later that year he departed for Europe where he was on duty with the American mission attached to the Italian army. During the advance on the Piave front in October 1918 Treat commanded the American forces and was personally under fire during the campaign. As a result, he was awarded the Italian Cross of War. Treat also received the American Distinguished Service Medal for his service on the Italian Front, the award citation making special note of his important role as head of the American forces in maintaining harmonious diplomatic relations between the Americans and the Italians. After World War I, Treat was commander at Camp Sherman, Fort Sam Houston, and Camp Stotsenburg in the Philippines until his retirement in 1922.
In addition to his reputation as one of the army's leading artillery experts, Treat was widely known as a horseman and was sometimes referred to as the father of polo in the American Army. He was also regarded by both military personnel and civilians as one of the best-liked men in the Army.
Treat married Margaret C. Cornell in 1899, and they had three children. After Mrs. Treat's death in 1917, he married Edith MacDonald. General Treat died October 11, 1941 in Washington, D.C.
