General of the Armies in chief of the Army of the [United States]". but only wore the three-star insignia of an Army lieutenant general. As of 1782, when Washington was listed as a lieutenant general on the rolls of the United States Army, his rank was informally called "three-star general". The United States at this point had no four-star general rank and would not until 1866. At that time, the European rank of captain general was shortened to simply "general"; there would also be no lieutenant generals in the American army until Winfield Scott was "brevetted" to the rank of lieutenant general in 1855.
Major general French Army, Major General (in full "Major General of the Army", "Major général de l'armée de terre") is a position and the major general is normally of the rank of corps general. Historically, the French army had some "sergent-majors généraux", also called "sergents de bataille", whose task was to prepare the disposition of the army on the field before a battle. These "sergents-majors généraux" became a new rank, the "maréchal de camp" (not the same as a field marshal, in the French Army from antiquity called a "Maréchal de France"), which was the equivalent of the rank of major general.