The United States Constitution gives the President of the United States the military rank of Commander In Chief of the US Armed Forces. He has extreme control and command over the nation's military forces.
The highest ranking President was George Washington, General of the Armies. In descending rank, Eisenhower was General of the Army, followed by General Grant, Major Generals Jackson, Harrison, Taylor, Hayes and Garfield. The next are Brigadier Generals Pierce, Johnson, Arthur and Harrison. Colonels Jefferson, Madison, Polk, Roosevelt, Truman are followed by Commanders Johnson and Nixon, Lt. Commanders Monroe, McKinley, Ford, Fillmore, Captains Tyler, Kennedy, Carter and Reagan, Lieutenants Bush and Bush, and Privates Buchanan and Lincoln.
The president is the commander-in-chief of the United States armed forces.
Considering that we have had two men who have held the rank of General (that is higher than Colonel) I would say two. They were Grant and Eisenhower.
Given that the highest rank possible in the US Military is Commander-in-Chief, and that the Commander-in-Chief is the President, they all held the highest rank possible. THE ABOVE answer I found here is incorrect. The Commander-in-Chief position is civilian, not military. The whole point of making the president C-in-C is to have civilian control of the military, unlike in other countries in the 18th century whose military did not answer to the government. The president is not a member of the military. I am told George Washington was the only six star general in history (before being president, of course), but I have not checked.
The US Presidents who were Civil War veterans who saw combat action were Grant, Hayes, Garfield and McKinley. Andrew Johnson has military rank as the military governor of Tennessee and Arthur was a supply officer in a non-combat position. Fillmore had a sort of honorary position in the home guard.
Presidents do not appoint military officers. And if everyone you had in mind holds the rank of Colonel, then they'd all be of equal rank, although some may be in senior positions over others.
A great place to find a list of the Presidents of the United States of America is on Wikipedia. Another website that has the list of US presidents is 'PresidentUSA'.
No six star rank ever existed in the US military.
50000000000000000000 how does that sound?
The President is the Commander in Chief. Highest Rank of the Military.
11th
US Presidents do not have to have served in the military in order to be elected.
In US, this is a "brevet" promotion
You'd have to specify which military you had in mind.. there is no rank of "Marshall" in the US Military (as this is categorized under "US Army"). But Private is generally the lowest enlisted rank in any military... Marshall generally refers to a commissioned officer.