List of United States Army four - star generals This is a complete list of four - star generals in the United States Army . The rank of general ( or " full general " , or " four - star general " ) is the highest rank normally achievable in the U . S . Army . It ranks above lieutenant general ( " three - star general " ) and below General of the Army ( " five - star general " ) . There have been 214 four - star generals in the history of the U . S . Army . Of these , 200 achieved that rank while on active duty in the U . S . Army ; eight were promoted after retirement ; five were promoted posthumously ; and one ( George Washington ) was appointed to that rank in the Continental Army , the U . S . Army ' s predecessor . Generals entered the Army via several paths : 137 were commissioned via the U . S . Military Academy ( USMA ) , 39 via Reserve Officer Training Corps ( ROTC ) at a civilian university , 16 via direct commission , 12 via Officer Candidate School ( OCS ) , 7 via ROTC at a senior military college , one via the Army National Guard ( ARNG ) , one via the aviation cadet program , and one via battlefield commission . List of generals . Entries in the following list of four - star generals are indexed by the numerical order in which each officer was promoted to that rank while on active duty , or by an asterisk ( * ) if the officer did not serve in that rank while on active duty in the U . S . Army . Each entry lists the general ' s name , date of rank , active - duty positions held while serving at four - star rank , number of years of active - duty service at four - star rank ( Yrs ) , year commissioned and source of commission , number of years in commission when promoted to four - star rank ( YC ) , and other biographical notes . The list is sortable by last name , date of rank , number of years of active - duty service at four - star rank , year commissioned , and number of years in commission when promoted to four - star rank . Timeline . 1775 – 1799 . In 1775 , George Washington was appointed " General and Commander in Chief of the United Colonies " and all its forces . Although Washington ranked as a full general in the Continental Army , he resigned his commission prior to the establishment of the U . S . Army in 1784 and he is therefore considered never to have held the U . S . Army rank of general . In 1798 , Washington was commissioned lieutenant general in the U . S . Army and appointed Commander in Chief of the armies of the United States . The following year , Congress created the rank of General of the Armies of the United States , but Washington died before accepting it and the rank lapsed until 1866 . Washington was finally promoted to General of the Armies in 1976 . 1866 – 1941 . The grade of general in the U . S . Army was revived in 1866 to honor the Civil War achievements of Ulysses S . Grant , the commanding general of the U . S . Army ( CGUSA ) . When Grant resigned his commission to become President in 1869 , William T . Sherman was promoted to fill the vacant grade . Congress specified in 1870 that the rank would expire upon Sherman ' s retirement , but made an exception in 1888 to promote an ailing Philip H . Sheridan . During this period , only one four - star general was active at a time , so he was referred to as the General of the Army , a title not to be confused with the later five - star rank of general of the Army . In 1917 , the rank of general was recreated in the National Army , a temporary force of conscripts and volunteers authorized for the duration of the World War I emergency . To give American commanders parity of rank with their Allied counterparts , Congress allowed the President to appoint two emergency generals in the National Army , specified to be the chief of staff of the Army ( CSA ) , Tasker H . Bliss and later Peyton C . March ; and the commander of United States forces in France , John J . Pershing . When March replaced Bliss as chief of staff , Bliss was continued in four - star rank by brevet as the U . S . military representative to the Supreme War Council . In contrast to the previous grade of general held by Grant , Sherman , and Sheridan , which was a permanent promotion , this new rank was a temporary appointment that was lost when the officer vacated the position bearing that rank , and while Pershing was ultimately advanced to General of the Armies in 1919 , March and Bliss reverted to their permanent grades of major general in the Regular Army when the National Army disbanded in 1920 . In 1929 , the temporary rank of general in the Regular Army was reauthorized for the office of chief of staff , whose occupant reverted to major general at the end of his term but was allowed to retire as a full general . When the draft force was reconstituted for World War II as the Army of the United States in 1941 , the President was authorized to appoint as many temporary generals in that organization as he deemed necessary . As with the National Army emergency generals , these appointments expired after the end of the war , although postwar legislation allowed officers to retire in their highest active - duty rank . 1941 – present . The modern rank of general was established by the Officer Personnel Act of 1947 , which authorized the President to designate certain positions of importance to carry that rank . Officers appointed to such positions bear temporary four - star rank while so serving , and are allowed to retire at that rank if their performance is judged satisfactory . The total number of active - duty four - star generals in the Army is limited to a fixed percentage of the number of Army general officers serving at all ranks . Within the Army , the chief of staff ( CSA ) and vice chief of staff ( VCSA ) are four - star generals by statute . Since World War II , the commanders of the Army formations in Europe ( USAREUR ) and East Asia ( FECOM / USFK ) have been designated four - star generals by reason of importance . Other designated four - star Army commands have included the various training , readiness , and materiel organizations . The Army also competes with the other services for a number of joint four - star positions , the most prestigious of which are the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( CJCS ) and the NATO supreme allied commander in Europe ( SACEUR ) . Other joint four - star positions have included unified combatant commanders ; certain NATO staff positions ; and the wartime theater commanders in Vietnam ( MACV ) , Iraq ( MNF - I ) , and Afghanistan ( ISAF ) .