Post: | Commanding General |
Body: | the United States Army |
Department: | United States Army United States Department of War |
Type: | Senior-most officer |
Reports To: | The Secretary of War |
Appointer: | The President |
Termlength: | No fixed term |
Constituting Instrument: | An act of the Second Continental Congress |
Formation: | 15 June 1775 June 1821 |
First: | GEN George Washington MG Jacob Brown |
Last: | LTG Nelson A. Miles |
Abolished: | 8 August 1903 |
Succession: | Chief of Staff of the Army |
The 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. In 1783, the title was simplified to Senior Officer of the United States Army. In 1821, the title was changed to Commanding General of the United States Army. 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 Secretary of War; it was replaced by the creation of the statutory Chief of Staff of the Army in 1903.
† denotes people who died in office.
|-style="text-align:center;"|colspan=8|Position vacant
(11 March 1862 – 23 July 1862) |-
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