The United States Code explicitly limits the total number of general officers that may be on active duty at any given time.

The total number of active duty general officers is capped at 231 for the Army, 62 for the Marine Corps, and 198 for the Air Force.

Following the disbanding of the Continental Army at the end of 1783 only one major general, Henry Knox, remained in service until his resignation in June 1784.

St. Clair was succeeded by Major General Anthony Wayne who commanded the Army (then named the Legion of the United States) until his death on December 15, 1796.

The rank was revived on July 19, 1798, when Alexander Hamilton and Charles C. Pinckney were commissioned as major generals during the Quasi War with France.

To address this anomaly, Washington was posthumously promoted by Congress to the rank of General of the Armies of the United States in 1976.

[14] When Ulysses S. Grant was appointed lieutenant general on March 9, 1864,[15] and took command of the Union forces, he used the three-star insignia formerly assigned to that position.

There was no major general in the U.S. Marine Corps until Commandant Charles Heywood was specially promoted by Act of Congress in July 1902.