General of The Armies - World War I and John Pershing

World War I and John Pershing

John Pershing's promotion to General of the Armies is rooted in the former title "General of the Army" from the days of the American Civil War. The Civil War version of this rank was considered the same as a "four-star" general, unequal in status to the later version of General of the Army, which was used during World War II.

After the Civil War, the United States military lapsed into a period where the highest possible general officer rank was that of the two-star major general. During World War I, the United States Congress authorized the appointment of three-star lieutenant generals and four-star "full" generals. The four-star rank was considered the "successor rank" to the Civil War title "General of the Army" in that both were considered four-star positions.

Tasker H. Bliss and John J. Pershing were promoted to Army general in October 1917, and Peyton C. March was promoted in May 1918. Hunter Liggett and Robert Lee Bullard were both promoted to Army lieutenant general on 16 October 1918.

On 3 September 1919, President Woodrow Wilson, in accordance with Public Law 66-45, promoted Pershing to the rank of "General of the Armies of the United States" in recognition of Pershing's performance as commander of the American Expeditionary Forces. The peculiar wording of Pershing's new rank (i.e. "of the Armies") was to distinguish that this held authority over all armed services, as opposed to the Civil War title "General of the Army" (itself an Army rank).

General Pershing was authorized to create his own insignia. He chose to wear the four stars of a general, but in gold. However, Army regulations of the time did not recognize this insignia, and Pershing's gold stars were never authorized as an official insignia.

With Pershing's appointment to General of the Armies in 1919, the general officer rank structure of the United States Army appeared as follows:

After the war, in 1920, lieutenant generals and generals reverted to their permanent rank of major general. Pershing, however, maintained his position as "General of the Armies" even though there were no longer any lieutenant generals or generals in active service. Pershing retired from the United States Army on 13 September 1924, and retained his rank on the U.S. Army retirement rolls until his death in 1948.

Four-star generals were reauthorized in 1929, starting with Charles Pelot Summerall. Pershing, by this point, was no longer on active duty and his rank was regarded as senior to a full general but a rank which was no longer in the regular promotion tier. In many ways, Pershing's rank was at this time synonymous with a five-star general; however, this would come to change during World War II when the Army appointed five-star Generals of the Army under Public Law 78-482.