The Arsenal of Democracy

From left to right: General and Commander in Chief George Washington, Brevet Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, Major General Zachary Taylor, General of the Army Ulysses Simpson Grant, General of the Army William Tecumseh Sherman, General of the Armies John Joseph Pershing, General of the Army and Field Marshal of the Philippines Douglas MacArthur, General George Smith Patton, Jr, and General of the Army Dwight David Eisenhower.

These men's careers stretch the whole of America's history. They fought in the French and Indian War and Revolutionary War (the Father of His Country), the War of 1812 (Old Fuss and Feathers, Old Rough and Ready), the Mexican War (Old Fuss and Feathers, Old Rough and Ready, and Unconditional Surrender), the Civil War (Old Fuss and Feathers, Unconditional Surrender, the Attila of America), the Spanish American War (Black Jack), World War I (Black Jack, the American Caesar, Old Blood and Guts), World War II (The American Caesar, Old Blood and Guts, Ike), and the Korean War (The American Caesar). Four of them -- Washington, Taylor, Grant, and Eisenhower -- were elected President of the United States.

Washington is wearing his unique rank of General and Commander in Chief (which he held during the Revolutionary War). Scott wears the epaulettes of a Lieutenant General (the highest rank in the Army at the time), and Taylor the shoulder straps of a Major General, while both Grant and Sherman wear the shoulder straps of a General of the Army (equivalent to the modern rank of General, but held by only one person at a time). Pershing wears the insignia of a General of the Armies, and both MacArthur and Eisenhower the five stars of a General of the Army (the second version, not the same rank held by Grant and Sherman). Patton wears the four stars of a General; prior to World War II, the rank of General was reserved for the Chief of Staff, making Patton one of the first men to have held the rank without having been professional head of the service.