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TASKER H. BLISS AND THE CREATION OF THE MODERN AMERICAN ARMY, 1853-1930 _________________________________________________________ A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board __________________________________________________________ in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY __________________________________________________________ by Thomas R. English December 2014 Examining Committee Members: Richard Immerman, Advisory Chair, Temple University, Department of History Gregory J. W. Urwin, Temple University, Department of History Jay Lockenour, Temple University, Department of History Daniel W. Crofts, External Member,The College of New Jersey, Department of History, Emeritus ii © Copyright 2014 By Thomas R. English All Rights Reserved iii ABSTRACT A commonplace observation among historians describes one or another historical period as a time of “transition” or a particular person as a “transitional figure.” In the history of the United States Army, scholars apply those terms especially to the late- nineteenth century “Old Army.” This categorization has helped create a shelf of biographies of some of the transitional figures of the era. Leonard Wood, John J. Pershing, Robert Lee Bullard, William Harding Carter, Henry Tureman Allen, Nelson Appleton Miles and John McCallister Schofield have all been the subject of excellent scholarly works. Tasker Howard Bliss has remained among the missing in that group, in spite of the important activities that marked his career and the wealth of source materials he left behind. Bliss belongs on that list because, like the others, his career demonstrates the changing nature of the U.S. Army between 1871 and 1917. Bliss served for the most part in administrative positions in the United States and in the American overseas empire. Seeing hardly any combat and spending only a few years commanding troops, Bliss contributed instead to the creation and development of the army’s post- graduate educational system, and he was deeply involved in the Elihu Root reforms of the army and the War Department. Thus what makes his career especially noteworthy, more than many of the soldiers on that list of biographies, is that Bliss helped to create the changes that laid the foundations for the modern army. iv During the First World War, Bliss worked more closely with the Allied leadership than any other American with the possible exception of Edward M. House. President Woodrow Wilson named Bliss as one of the five commissioners leading the U.S. delegation to the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919. In this position he influenced many members of the American delegation who would remain leaders in the foreign policy elite into the 1940s, and he helped to create the Council on Foreign Relations, an important organization for the foreign policy elite. For Frederick Palmer, the author of the family-authorized biography, the Great War and the Peace Conference were the climax of Bliss’s career. A substantial modern scholarly literature exists on Bliss’s service in the Great War and the Peace Conference, but none of those works present his earlier career in any detail. As a result, when planning this dissertation with the late Professor Russell F. Weigley, we decided to concentrate on Bliss’s activities before 1917. Bliss helped shape the institutions the United States needed as it became a world power, and he trained some of the leaders who would exercise that power. He left a legacy of thoughtful consideration of the organizational, political and moral issues that the exercise of power posed for the United States. It was a life that still teaches us how to face the issues involved in the exercise of world power. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Many people have contributed to the completion of this dissertation in ways great and small. The late Dr. Russell F. Weigley suggested the topic and guided my work in the early stages. He contributed many insights into the history of the military and war, and he was a caring and considerate person – a Philadelphia gentleman in the best sense of the term. I am grateful to Dr. Richard Immerman for his willingness to pick up the task of advising and see the project through to completion. Not only did he make numerous suggestions and corrections to improve the work, he offered support when medical and work-related issues made the task seem impossible. Dr. Gregory Urwin read the dissertation with an eye for grammar, style and diction that led to many improvements. The errors of any kind that remain are my responsibility entirely. Dr. Jay Lockenour is a fine teacher who taught me the most efficient way I know to keep records of books read, while Dr. Dan Crofts of The College of New Jersey offered helpful suggestions and considerable encouragement. Numerous research institutions helped me with my research. The staff at the Library of Congress Manuscript Division made it a pleasure to do research there. The staff at the National Archives, especially Dr. Timothy Nenninger, made helpful suggestions about sources and helped me to find materials in their vast collections. The archival staff at the Naval War College showed me great hospitality during a short visit. vi No archivist runs a more researcher-friendly facility than Dr. Richard J. Sommers of the Army’s Military Heritage Center in Carlisle, Pa. Not only did he guide me to several collections beyond the Tasker H. Bliss Papers, but also he readily shared his inexhaustible knowledge of the late-nineteenth century army and especially the Civil War veterans among its officer corps. I was never able to come up with a name for which he could not supply detailed information about the officer’s Civil War record. Both the U. S. Army Center of Military History and the Military Heritage Center supported my research with grants, and George School provided both a full- year and a term sabbatical to make available the time for research and writing. The Temple University History Department deserves my thanks for its decision to schedule graduate classes in the evening so that full-time pre-college teachers have the opportunity for graduate study. Dr. Shawn Schurr in the Deans Office of the College of Liberal Arts blended encouragement with deadlines in a helpful manner. My late parents encouraged my interest in history and the military from grade school on; they would be proud to see the finished dissertation. Victor H. English loved the army and his fellow veterans, especially the 35th Infantry Division and General George S. Patton, Jr. My long-suffering wife Renukha has lived with this project for a majority of the time since our marriage. I thank her for her tolerance as well as her support. Finally, the dedication of this work is taken from the works of Johann Sebastian Bach: Sola Dei Gloria. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ABSTRACT …………………………………………………………. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………… v PREFACE ………………………………………………………….. viii CHAPTER 1. JOINING THE PROFESSION OF ARMS ……….. 1 2. BUIILDING A REPUTATION ……………………. 41 3. AIDING THE COMMANDING GENERAL …… 66 4. COLLECTING FOR CUBA …………….………. 122 5. REFORMING THE WAR DEPARTMENT ………. 182 6. ESTABLISHING THE WAR COLLEGE …………. 226 7. THINKING AS A PROFESSIONAL …………….. 256 8. GOVERNING THE MOROS …………………… 293 9. GUARDING THE SOUTHERN BORDER ………. 328 10. FIGHTING, THEN NEGOTIATING ……………. 369 11. WORKING FOR PEACE ………………………. 402 BIBLIOGRAPHY ……………………………………… 464 viii Preface A commonplace observation among historians describes one or another historical period as a time of “transition” or a particular person as a “transitional figure.” In the history of the United States Army, scholars apply those terms especially to the late- nineteenth century “Old Army.” This categorization has helped create a shelf of biographies of some of the transitional figures of the era: Leonard Wood, John J. Pershing, Robert Lee Bullard, William Harding Carter, Henry Tureman Allen, Nelson Appleton Miles and John McCallister Schofield have all been the subject of excellent scholarly works.1 Tasker Howard Bliss has remained among the missing in that group, in spite of the important activities that marked his career and the wealth of source materials he left behind. Bliss belongs on that list because, like the others, his career demonstrates the changing nature of the U.S. Army between 1871 and 1917. Bliss served for the most part in administrative positions in the United States and in the American overseas empire. Seeing hardly any combat and spending only a few years commanding troops, Bliss contributed instead to the creation and development of the army’s post- graduate educational system, and he was deeply involved in the Elihu Root reforms of the army and the War Department. Thus what makes his career especially noteworthy, more than many of the soldiers on that list of biographies, is that Bliss 1 Biographies of these officers are cited in several chapters and included in the bibliography. vii helped to create the changes that laid the foundations for the modern army. Graduating from the Military Academy in 1875, Bliss soon returned to teach at West Point. His work attracted the attention of Major General Schofield, the Superintendent, and when Schofield became Commanding General of the Army, he selected Bliss as one of his aides. Serving under Schofield from 1888 to 1895, Bliss gained a broad knowledge of the issues facing the military, with a special emphasis on the importance of professional education and training for officers and the impact of changing weapons technology on every part of the army. Schofield consciously prepared his staff for future high positions, and as an “incremental reformer,”2 he taught Bliss about the politics that was an essential part of military service in a democratic republic. When Schofield retired, the Secretary of War, Daniel S. Lamont, retained Bliss in Washington, D.C., to help him with special projects until Bliss was assigned as military attaché at the U.S. legation in Madrid. Returning from Spain when war broke out in 1898, Bliss served in the brief Puerto Rico campaign.

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