Charles H. Peck

The simple and modest personality of Dr. Charles Howard Peck was of the sort which we have come to associate with men of achievement in the Great War. One of our generals whose duties put him closely in contact with the new recruits listened not long ago with some impatience to the remark that Lindbergh’s simplicity and self-restraint ought to be a lesson to the young American of the period. He answered that any one who came to know the Expeditionary Force would have learned how widely that type of character prevailed, long before the air flight to Paris. Our returning soldiers have not been apt to talk of their exploits in 1918 as we used to think (perhaps mistakenly) they talked of the Wilderness and Gettysburg after 1865, and the medical staff in the European war seemed as willing to forget. Dr. Peck commanded the General Headquarters hospital at Chaumont; he won the rank of colonel and the Distinguished Service medal and, what was perhaps further out of the run of ordinary experience, he was chosen honorary member of the French Alpine Chasseurs for his services at the battle of Chemin des Dames. But he talked of his war experience little, and gladly returned to his surgical work at Roosevelt Hospital, where he held posts of high responsibility for nearly a quarter of a century.

Alexander Dana Noyes
1928 Century Association Yearbook