General officers in the United States
Proposals to bring back these ranks were made during World War II, with Douglas MacArthur and Chester W. Nimitz under consideration for appointment as General of the Armies and Admiral of the Navy, respectively, but this was never implemented.
A year prior to his death, Washington was appointed by President John Adams to the rank of lieutenant general in the United States Army during the Quasi-War with France.
Washington never exercised active authority under his new rank, however, and Adams made the appointment to frighten the French, with whom war seemed certain.
When George Washington died, he was listed as a lieutenant general on the rolls of the United States Army.
After the Revolutionary War, the tiny United States Army at first had no active duty General Officers.
The position was abolished at the start of the 20th century and replaced by that of Chief of Staff of the United States Army.
However, it soon became clear that Polk intended to give this rank to Senator Thomas Hart Benton and place him in charge of the entire war effort—a move that would place Benton, a Democrat and Polk ally, above the two Whig generals who had been conducting the war (Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott).
On 25 July 1866, the U.S. Congress established the rank of "General of the Army of the United States" for Ulysses S. Grant.
When appointed General of the Army, Grant wore the rank insignia of four stars and coat buttons arranged in three groups of four.
After Grant retired to become President of the United States, he was succeeded as General of the Army by William T. Sherman, effective 4 March 1869.
(The cover of Sheridan's autobiography was decorated with four stars within a rectangle evocative of the four-star shoulder strap worn by Grant.
L. 66–45 granted Pershing the rank of "General of the Armies of the United States" in recognition of his performance as the commander of the American Expeditionary Force.
[13] The four-star rank of General remained unique to the Chief of Staff, as authorized by the act of 23 February 1929.
[14] During World War II most American Generals held temporary or "theater" appointments in the Army of the United States.
This second General of the Army rank is not considered comparable to the American Civil War era version.
The insignia for General of the Army, as created in 1944, consisted of five stars in a pentagonal pattern, with points touching.
In theory, a General would be expected to vacate their three- or four-star rank at the termination of their assignment, unless they were placed in an equal or higher-ranking billet.
[citation needed] There have been no officers appointed to the rank of General of the Army since Omar Bradley and, in the 21st century U.S. military, further appointments are highly unlikely unless the United States were to become involved in a major war on the scale of World War II.
This would be problematic in that with the appointment of United States Marine Corps generals as chairman, there is no current five-star USMC rank.
To maintain George Washington's proper position as the first Commanding General of the United States Army, he was appointed, posthumously, to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States by congressional joint resolution Public Law 94-479 19 January 1976, approved by President Gerald R. Ford on 11 October 1976.
