GENERAL OF THE ARMIES
OF THE UNITED STATES

______Ranks of U.S. Army generals are often expressed by the number of stars in their rank insignia. A brigadier-general wears one, a major-general wears two, a lieutenant-general wears three and a general wears four. There is a five-star rank conferred only in wartime, and that rank is General of the Army. The last officer to hold that rank was General of the Army Omar Bradley, who died in 1981.
______Many people believe that General of the Army is the highest rank, but there is one rank higher, a six-star equivelent: General of the Armies of the United States. And the only man to hold that rank is General of the Armies of the United States George Washington.
______George Washington could hardly have imagined being promoted to such lofty heights in his lifetime. He held the rank equivelent of a lieutenant-general and the title conferred on him by the Continental Congress: Commander-in-Chief of the Army of the United Colonies. However, the Continental Army was rarely in the field in strength and LTG Washington was lucky if had a few thousand soldiers under his direct command during most of the Revolutionary War.
______George Washington resigned his commission in 1783 following the U.S. victory over the British. He later served as the first President of the United States, from 1789-1797. Washington stepped down but in 1798 it appeared that America would once more be plunged into war, this time with France. President John Adams recalled George Washington out of retirement and once again commissioned him a lieutenant-general, with the title Commander-in-Chief of all the Armies. The following year Congress proposed eliminating the rank of LTG and replacing it with the rank of General of the Armies of the United States. However, the rank was never conferred upon Washington and he died a lieutenant-general.
______The rank of General of the Army was used during the Civil War, but it was used to designate four-star rank. General of the Armies of the United States was again created for Pershing, so that he would be on equal standing with the European marshals of America's allies, but the rank was the equivelent to five stars (although no such device was used at the time). Finally, in WWII, key generals were given the five-star rank of General of the Army, the highest permanent rank so authorized although the General of the Armies rank was recognized to be superior by the same act.
______In 1976, during the U.S. bicentennial, Congress conferred upon George Washington the posthumous rank of General of the Armies of the United States, a six-star rank that ensures that no other general will ever outrank him.

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