Major General - France

France

The French equivalent to the rank of major general is général de division.

In the French military, major général is not a rank but an appointment conferred on some generals, usually of général de corps d'armée rank, acting as head of staff of a branch of service. This should not be confused with the chief of staff, who is usually a général d'armée, and the true commander of each service. The position of major général can be considered the equivalent of a deputy chief of Staff. There are five major generals: the Major General of the Armies, head of the General Staff, the Major General of the Army, the Major General of the Navy, the Major General of the Gendarmerie and the Major General of the Air Force.Major-General(General en Chef d'Armee)the Marquis de la Lafayette, is a prominent example of a Major-General holding the same equivalent rank in both the newly created United States and in Ancien-Regime France.

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. However, the term of major général was not forgotten and used to describe the appointment of armies chiefs of staff. One well-known French major général was Marshal Louis Alexandre Berthier, Major General of Napoléon's Grande armée.