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Commanding General of the United States Army

Extinct military position in the US

Summary

Extinct military position in the US

Field	Value
post	Commanding General
body	the United States Army
flagcaption	bigback
image	Winfield Scott by Fredricks, 1862 crop.jpg
imagecaption	**Longest serving
Brevet LTG Winfield Scott**
5 July 1841 – 1 November 1861
department	United States Army
United States Department of War
type	Senior-most officer
reports_to	The secretary of war
seat	Several HQs (Washington)
appointer	The president
appointer_qualified	with Congress advice and consent
termlength	No fixed term
constituting_instrument	An act of the Second Continental Congress
formation	15 June 1775
June 1821
first	GEN George Washington
as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army
MG Jacob Brown
as Commanding General of the United States Army
last	LTG Nelson A. Miles
abolished	8 August 1903
succession	Chief of Staff of the Army

Brevet LTG Winfield Scott** 5 July 1841 – 1 November 1861 United States Department of War June 1821 as Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army MG Jacob Brown as Commanding General of the United States Army

Commanding General of the United States Army was the title given to the service chief and highest-ranking officer of the United States Army (and its predecessor the Continental Army), prior to the establishment of the chief of staff of the United States Army in 1903. During the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), the title was Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. Between 1783 and 1821, there was no true overall commander for the army. Historians use the term Senior Officer of the United States Army to refer to the individual that held the highest rank by virtue of his date of commission, though the authority they exerted depended on the will of the secretary of war. In 1821, Secretary John C. Calhoun appointed Jacob Brown as the Commanding General of the United States Army, thus establishing the office of Commanding General. The office was often referred to by various other titles, such as "Major General Commanding the Army" or "General-in-Chief".

From 1789 until its abolition in 1903, the position of commanding general was legally subordinate to the United States secretary of war; (senior member of the President's Cabinet), but was replaced by the creation of the statutory chief of staff of the Army by action of the United States Congress in 1903, under the 26th president Theodore Roosevelt (1901–1909).

Officeholders

† denotes people who died in office.

Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army (1775–1783)

Senior Officer of the United States Army (1783–1821)

Commanding General of the United States Army (1821–1903)

|-style="text-align:center;" (11 March 1862 – 23 July 1862) |-

Timeline

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DateFormat = yyyy Period = from:1775 till:1905 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1775 ScaleMinor = unit:year increment:1 start:1775

Colors = id:cinc value:rgb(0,0,0) legend: CINC id:so value:rgb(0,0,1) legend: SO id:cg value:rgb(1,0,0) legend: CG id:time value:rgb(0.9,0.9,0.9)

Legend = orientation:vertical position:right

BarData = barset:PM

bar:washington bar:knox bar:doughty bar:harmar bar:stclair bar:wayne bar:wilkinson bar:hamilton bar:dearborn bar:brown bar:macomb bar:scott bar:mcclellan bar:halleck bar:grant bar:sherman bar:sheridan bar:schofield bar:miles

PlotData = width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till barset:PM

bar:washington from: 1775 till: 1783 color:cinc from: 1798 till: 1799 color:so text:"Washington" fontsize:10 bar:knox from: 1783 till: 1784 color:so text:"Knox" fontsize:10 bar:doughty from: 1784 till: 1784 color:so text:"Doughty" fontsize:10 bar:harmar from: 1784 till: 1791 color:so text:"Harmar" fontsize:10 bar:stclair from: 1791 till: 1792 color:so text:"St. Clair" fontsize:10 bar:wayne from: 1792 till: 1796 color:so text:"Wayne" fontsize:10 bar:wilkinson from: 1796 till: 1798 color:so from: 1800 till: 1812 color:so text:"Wilkinson" fontsize:10 bar:hamilton from: 1799 till: 1800 color:so text:"Hamilton" fontsize:10 bar:dearborn from: 1812 till: 1815 color:so text:"Dearborn" fontsize:10 bar:brown from: 1815 till: 1821 color:so from: 1821 till: 1828 color:cg text:"Brown" fontsize:10 bar:macomb from: 1828 till: 1841 color:cg text:"Macomb" fontsize:10 bar:scott from: 1841 till: 1861 color:cg text:"Scott" fontsize:10 bar:mcclellan from: 1861 till: 1862 color:cg text:"McClellan" fontsize:10 bar:halleck from: 1862 till: 1864 color:cg text:"Halleck" fontsize:10 bar:grant from: 1864 till: 1869 color:cg text:"Grant" fontsize:10 bar:sherman from: 1869 till: 1883 color:cg text:"Sherman" fontsize:10 bar:sheridan from: 1883 till: 1888 color:cg text:"Sheridan" fontsize:10 bar:schofield from: 1888 till: 1895 color:cg text:"Schofield" fontsize:10 bar:miles from: 1895 till: 1903 color:cg text:"Miles" fontsize:10

Notes

Bibliography

Historical Resources Branch; United States Army Center of Military History.
{{Cite book
{{Cite book | access-date = 18 June 2010 | archive-date = 10 April 2021 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210410203809/https://history.army.mil/books/cg%26csa/cg-toc.htm | url-status = dead
{{Cite book | orig-year = 1949

References

Simpson, Brooks D.. (11 October 2024). "Someone got promoted!".
Act of 23 December 2022 James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023 ([https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/7776 H. R. 7776] {{Webarchive. link. (19 December 2022 ).)

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

united-states-army-organization united-states-army-generals 1775-establishments-in-the-thirteen-colonies 1903-disestablishments-in-the-united-states commanding-generals-of-the-united-states-army confederation-period

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