General of the Armies

General of the Armies of the United States, more commonly referred to as General of the Armies, is the highest military rank in the United States Army. The rank has been conferred two times: to John J. Pershing in 1919, as a personal accolade for his command of the American Expeditionary Forces during World War I, to George Washington in 1976, as a posthumous honor during the United States Bicentennial celebrations. In December of 2022, Congress authorized the president to posthumously appoint Ulysses S. Grant to the rank, however the president has yet to do so. The grade is sometimes described as a six-star general, as being senior to the five-star grade of General of the Army, but no six-star insignia was ever officially created and Pershing, the only person to be General of the Armies during his own lifetime, never wore more than four stars. Whether Pershing's grade should rank as four, five, or six stars has been a subject of debate ever since the five-star grades were created in 1944. To make Washington unambiguously the highest ranking Army officer in 1976, Congress specified that his new grade of General of the Armies ranked above all other grades of the Army, past or present. The General of the Armies enjoyed several privileges not afforded to other generals, including a much higher salary and the right to retire at full pay and allowances. Even in retirement, Pershing was the second-highest-paid official in the federal government, after only the president of the United States. The office of "General of the Armies of the United States" was created by an Act of Congress on March 3, 1799, which stated: That a commander of the army of the United States shall be appointed and commissioned by the style of "General of the Armies of the United States," and the present office and title of Lieutenant-General shall thereafter be abolished. The law was intended to elevate George Washington, who was then a lieutenant general commanding the provisional army being organized to fight the Quasi-War against France, but President John Adams never made the appointment, concerned it would infringe on the president's constitutional function as 'commander-in-chief of the armed forces'.