On October 11, 1976, President Gerald Ford approved Public Law 94-479, a congressional joint resolution authorizing and requesting the posthumous appointment of George Washington as General of the Armies of the United States. The measure, enacted during the United States Bicentennial, established that this grade would have rank and precedence over all other grades of the U.S. Army, past or present.
Washington had held the rank of lieutenant general, the highest regular Army grade of his era. As later conflicts produced higher-ranking generals—including Ulysses S. Grant, John J. Pershing, George C. Marshall, and Dwight D. Eisenhower—Congress acted to ensure that no Army officer would outrank the nation’s first commander in chief.
The law specified that Washington’s appointment would take effect on July 4, 1976, the Bicentennial of American independence. The Army formally implemented the promotion by order on March 13, 1978, retaining the July 4, 1976 effective date. No special six-star insignia was created; the significance of the action lay in Washington’s permanent statutory precedence within the Army.
