General Charles Pelot Summerall (March 4, 1867 – May 14, 1955) was a senior United States Army officer. He commanded the 1st Infantry Division in World War I, was Chief of Staff of the United States Army from 1926 to 1930, and was President of The Citadel between 1931 and 1953.

Summerall was born in Blounts Ferry, Columbia County, Florida, on March 4, 1867, and attended the Porter Military Academy in South Carolina from 1882 to 1885. After graduation, he worked as a school teacher for three years. In 1888 he enrolled in the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, graduating in June 1892. His classmates included numerous men who would later attain general officer rank, such as Julian Robert Lindsey, Tracy Campbell Dickson, Frank W. Coe, William Ruthven Smith, James Ancil Shipton, Louis Chapin Covell, Preston Brown, George Blakely, Robert Mearns, Peter Weimer Davison, Howard Russell Hickok, Henry Howard Whitney, John E. Woodward, John McAuley Palmer and George Columbus Barnhardt.

Commissioned as a second lieutenant, Summerall was assigned to the 1st Infantry Regiment, transferring to the 5th Artillery Regiment in March 1893. He performed garrison duty in California from 1893 to 1895, then served at Fort Hamilton, New York from 1895 to 1898. During the Spanish–American War, he was assigned to the Department of the Gulf as aide to the commander, Major General William Montrose Graham, and as an engineer officer in 1898 to 1899, receiving promotion to first lieutenant in March 1899.

Summerall participated with his unit in the Philippine Insurrection in 1899 to 1900, and was a member of the China Relief Expedition in 1900 to 1901, participating in the attack on Peking. He was promoted to captain and assigned to the 106th Coast Artillery Company in July 1901. He served at Forts Walla Walla and Lawton, in Washington state, commanding the latter post in 1901 to 1902. He was on duty at Camp Skagway and was in charge of preliminary work at Fort Seward in Alaska. He commanded Fort Flagler in 1902 to 1903, and then was transferred to the 3rd Field Artillery Battery with duty at Camp Thomas and Fort Myer in 1903 to 1905.

Summerall was the senior instructor of artillery tactics at West Point from 1905 to 1911. He was promoted to major in March 1911, and commanded the field artillery of the Maneuver Division at San Antonio, Texas. He commanded the summer camps of instruction for army and National Guard artillery in 1912 to 1914, was assistant chief of the Militia Bureau and in charge of National Guard artillery in 1915 to 1917. He was engaged in purchasing artillery ranges, and was a member of the Ordnance Board from 1915 to 1916, the commission to investigate the manufacture of munitions in 1916, the Board of Ordnance and Fortification in 1917, and the military mission to British and French armies in 1917. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1916, colonel in 1917, and brigadier general in the National Army in August 1917.

Summerall commanded the 67th Field Artillery Brigade and the 1st Field Artillery Brigade in operations in France in 1917, was promoted to major general in the National Army, and successively commanded his brigade, the 1st Division, and V Corps, in the Cantigny, Soissons, St. Mihiel, and Meuse-Argonne operations in 1918. "Late on November 9th, instructions from the Allied Commander-In-Chief were transmitted by G.H.Q., A.E.F., directing a general attack, which was executed by the First Army on November 10th–11th. Crossings of the Meuse were secured by General Summerall's (V) Corps during the night of November 10th–11th and the remainder of the army advanced on the whole front." Summerall's actions on November 10–11 resulted in over eleven hundred American casualties. Some have criticized the allied operations in the final days of the war, including those ordered by Summerall, as causing unnecessary loss of life, but they are more understandable in the context of previous failed peace attempts and rumors. Marshal Ferdinand Foch, the Allied Supreme Commander, warned General John Joseph "Blackjack" Pershing, Commander-in-Chief of the American Expeditionary Forces (AEF) on the Western Front, on November 5: "It can happen that the enemy may spread rumors that an armistice is signed in order to deceive us. There is none. Let no one cease hostilities of any sort without information from the Marshal, Commander-In-Chief."

According to historian Niall Ferguson, Major General Summerall was equally capable of issuing orders that violated the laws and customs of war, as when he ordered U.S. Marine Corps officer Elton Mackin, "Way up there to the north is a railhead... Go cut it for me. And when you cut it, you will go hungry if you try to feed the prisoners you will take... Now I say, and you remember me on this, on those three ridges, take no prisoners."

Later, Summerall commanded IX and IV Corps and served on the American Peace Commission at the Peace Conference in 1919.