Beschreibung:

Lot of approx. 24 items. Tasker Howard Bliss (1853-1930) graduated from USMA in 1875, ranking 8th in his class. He spent his first year on routine garrison duty in the East until September 1876 when he returned to West Point as an instructor in French. He remained there until 1882, the same year he was married to Eleanor Anderson (Eleanora, Ellen, Nellie). He was assigned to several routine postings until being appointed to the Naval War College in 1885. As part of his assignment, he was sent to Europe (England, Germany, France) to study their military schools to determine if the American schools were teaching the same type of material. After his return he was assigned as ADC to General John Schofield He held several concurrent assignments, to Artillery and Small Arms, Subsistence, Office of the Secretary of War, etc. As war loomed with Spain, he was sent as Military Attache to the Spanish Legation, returning to the US after war was declared. He was initially assigned to the Commissary of Subsistence before being sent to Santiago, Cuba and Puerto Rico. After the war he served in Customs for Cuba and on the committee to revise the Cuban Tariff Treaty. He was commissioned Brigadier General in 1903. In 1905 he was sent to command the Department of Luzon in the Philippines. He subsequently governed the Department of Mindinao and Moro Province. On his return in 1909 he was assigned to the General Staff and President of the Army War College, followed by appointments to the Department of California (San Francisco), Department of the East (Fort Totten, NY) and Department of the South (Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio). He was promoted to Major General in 1915 after being appointed to Assistant Chief of Staff. He was promoted to Chief of Staff of the Army in 1917 and received a temporary promotion to General when he was assigned to the Supreme War Council as the American Military Representative. He was retired by age on 31 December 1917, but recalled by Woodrow Wilson the following day and sent to France to better carry out duties of the War Council. In May 1918 he was returned to his rank of Maj. Gen. (ret.) but served at the Paris Peace conference until its conclusion in Dec. 1919. In "retirement" he served as Governor of the Soldiers' Home in Washington, DC, retiring in 1927. He was reinstated as full General in June 1930, just before his death in November of that year. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. There are 34 letters, most with covers. One ALS is from Bliss to his wife, dated Feb. 14, 1902. On Army and Navy Club, Washington, letterhead. He is letting her know that they got that far in their travels. A second ALS, 29 Oct 1902 is also letting her know where he was (Newport, RI). Most of the content is about the journey there and people (other men in service) that he encountered in Newport that they had encountered many years earlier (he thinks 1878-79). Another six letters from General Bliss to his wife are dated 15 Feb. 1897; 1 Oct. 1902; 21 March 1903; 21 July 1903; 2 July 1905; and 5 July 1905. The first four are from Washington, DC, the fifth from Omaha, NE and the last from San Francisco, CA. Most have to do with his schedule, but the earliest includes a newspaper clipping about he and a number of "bigwigs" going to witness the shooting of a ten-inch gun. Bliss was only a Major at that point, and the aide to Secretary (Daniel S.) Lamont, Secretary of War under Grover Cleveland (second term). Most of the remaining letters are to his wife from various cousins, in-laws, and family members. Most of the content is personal. One of the early letters describes a trip to Fortress Monroe in 1883 (letter dated 9 May), where Bliss was stationed. The women stuck around for a parade (presume military). There is one from daughter Minnie, addressed to General and Mrs. Bliss at the U.S. Soldier's Home in Washington, DC (but postal date not readable, and she did not include a date on the letter). Another item in the group is an in