General officer brigadier general is brigadier, which is not always considered by these armies to be a general officer rank, although it is always treated as equivalent to the rank of brigadier general for comparative purposes. As a lieutenant outranks a sergeant major; confusion often arises because a lieutenant is outranked by a major. Originally the serjeant major was, exclusively, the commander of the infantry, junior only to the captain general and lieutenant general. The distinction of serjeant major general only applied after serjeant majors were introduced as a rank of field officer. Serjeant was eventually dropped from both rank titles, creating
Major (France) rank of Major also designated the general officer () in charge of maintaining the materials and security of a port or naval base, the position was known as the "Major" General of the Arsenals (). In a squadron, the Squadron Major (), was a general officer as Ship-of-the-line captain, and upheld the function of the general staff headquarters of the squadron. The actual organization of the Armies instituted, first in the military hierarchy, a "function" (not a rank) of "Major General" for the ensemble of the Armies or each one of the: Major General of the Armies (), Major General