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Rank Structure Definition

When
1866
Where
United States Army
Part of
General of the Army Act, 25 July 1866

The 1866 rank was nominally four-star but held authority over the entire Army, distinct from later five-star ranks.

Unlike the World War II five-star rank, the 1866 grade was nominally four-star. However, it held all the authority and power of a 1799 proposal for a rank of General of the Armies. Only one officer at a time could hold this specific grade.

Sources

  1. General of the Army (United States) Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-26

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.