General of the Armies Congress authorized the appointment of three-star lieutenant generals and four-star generals to be granted temporarily for service in the National Army. Tasker H. Bliss and John J. Pershing were promoted to general in October 1917, and Peyton C. March was promoted to that rank in May 1918. Hunter Liggett and Robert Lee Bullard were both promoted to lieutenant general on October 16, 1918. In 1919, by Congressional directive, the rank of General of the Armies was formally established and John J. Pershing became the first person to hold the rank. After the close of the First World War, the highest
Major General Richard Stewart Dobbs Major General Richard Stewart Dobbs Major General Richard Stewart Dobbs (10 May, 1808 – 26 September, 1888), son of Rev. Richard Stewart Dobbs and Harriet Macauley, was a British civil servant. He served as the first Superintendent of Chittledroog (Chitradurga) Division, in the princely state of Mysuru (Mysore), British India, from 1834 to 1861. Tumakuru was the then headquarters of this division. He subsequently rose to the rank of Major-General in the 9th Regiment of the Madras Native Infantry One of the major successes during his administration, as he has recorded in his reminiscences, was that he was completely successful