Post–American Civil War era Toward the end of the
American Civil War,
Ulysses S. Grant achieved the first fixed promotion to
lieutenant general in the U.S. since
George Washington. (His combined monthly pay and allowance of seven hundred dollars in 1866 is ). When appointed General of the Army, Grant wore the rank insignia of four stars and coat buttons arranged in three groups of four. Unlike the
World War II rank with a similar title, the 1866 rank of General of the Army was nominally a four-star rank, but this rank held all the authority and power of a 1799 proposal for a rank of "
General of the Armies", even though Grant was never called by this title. Despite being titled General of the Army instead of General of the Armies, the
Comptroller General of the United States would rule in 1924 that the grade revived in 1866 for Grant (and later
William T. Sherman and
Philip H. Sheridan) was the same grade that had been proposed for Washington in 1799 and revived for Pershing in 1919. In contrast to the modern four-star rank of
general, only one officer at a time could hold the 1866–1888 rank of General of the Army. For a few months in 1885, as he was dying, Grant was accorded a special honor and his rank was restored by Congressional legislation. After Grant became U.S. president, he was succeeded as General of the Army by William T. Sherman, effective 4 March 1869. In 1872, Sherman ordered the insignia changed to two stars, with the
coat of arms of the United States in between. By an Act of Congress on 1 June 1888, the grade was conferred upon Philip Sheridan, who by then was in failing health. The rank of General of the Army ceased to exist with Sheridan's death on 5 August 1888. The five-star rank and authority of General of the Army and equivalent naval
Fleet Admiral were created by an
Act of Congress on a temporary basis when was passed on 14 December 1944, which provided only 75% of pay and allowances to the grade for those on the retired list. It was created to give the most senior American commanders parity of rank with their
British counterparts holding the ranks of
field marshal and
admiral of the fleet. This second General of the Army rank is not the same as the post-Civil War era version because of its purpose and five stars. The insignia for the 1944 General of the Army rank consists of five stars in a pentagonal pattern, with points touching. The five officers who have held the 1944 version of General of the Army and the date of each's appointment are as follows:
Generals of the Army (WWII) The timing of the first four of these appointments was coordinated with the first three of the following appointments of the
U.S. Navy's first five-star
Fleet Admirals: This was to establish both an order of
seniority among the generals and a near-equivalence between the services. Eisenhower resigned his Army commission on 31 May 1952 to run for the U.S. presidency. After Eisenhower was elected and served two terms, President
John F. Kennedy on 22 March 1961 signed , which authorized reappointing Eisenhower "to the active list of the Regular Army in his former grade, of General of the Army with his former date of rank in such grade". This rank is today commemorated on the signs denoting
Interstate Highways as part of the
Eisenhower Interstate System, which display five silver stars on a light blue background. Arnold, a
general in the Army, was the Commanding General of the
Army Air Forces throughout World War II, when he was promoted. After his
United States Air Force became a separate service on 18 September 1947, Arnold's rank was carried over to the Air Force, just as all Army Air Forces airmen's rank carried over. Arnold was the first and, to date, only
General of the Air Force. He is also the only person to have ever held a five-star rank in two branches of the U.S. Armed Forces. Bradley received the 5-star rank upon being made the first Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (serving from 1949 to 1953). This was to make him equal in rank to General of the Army MacArthur, who was still serving at the time. These officers who held the rank of General of the Army remained officers of the United States Army for life, with an annual $20,000 in pay and allowances, . They were entitled to an office maintained by the Army along with an
aide (of the rank of
colonel), a
secretary, and an
orderly.
Modern usage No officers have been promoted to the rank of General of the Army since
Omar Bradley (who was also the last living officer of such rank when he died in 1981). The rank is still maintained in the Army's structure, and could be awarded by the president with the consent of the
United States Senate. In the 1990s, there were proposals in
Department of Defense academic circles to bestow a five-star rank on the office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. After the conclusion of the
Persian Gulf War, but before his tenure as Secretary of State, there was talk of awarding a fifth star to General
Colin Powell, who had served as CJCS during the conflict. But even in the face of public and Congressional pressure to do so,
Clinton presidential transition team staffers decided against it for political reasons, fearing that a fifth star might have assisted Powell (a Republican) had he decided to run for office. An effort was also made to promote General
Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. to General of the Army, although it was not carried out. As recently as the late 2000s, some commentators proposed that the military leader in the
Global War on Terrorism be promoted to a five-star rank. In January 2011, the founders of the
Vets for Freedom political advocacy group published an
op-ed in
The Wall Street Journal calling for
David Petraeus to be awarded a fifth star in recognition of his work and the importance of his mission. Earlier, in July 2010,
David W. Brown wrote an article in
The Atlantic supporting the same promotion. ==Ranks senior to General of the Army==