Spanish–American War

On 30 April 1898, Bliss was promoted to major, Staff, Commissary of Subsistence and on 9 May to lieutenant colonel and Chief, Commissary of Subsistence, U.S. Volunteers. Bliss was then assigned to the 6th Army Corps as Chief Commissary, 23 May 1898, and then Camp George H. Thomas, in Chickamauga, Georgia, until ordered to Santiago, Cuba, and then Puerto Rico on 20 July 1898. Colonel Bliss arrived in Ponce, Puerto Rico, in early August and was appointed as the chief of staff, 1st Division, I Army Corps, under Major General James H. Wilson. Concurrent assignments included being a board member to select camp sites in Cuba and chief commissary of the I Army Corps.

Time in Cuba

Bliss was ordered to Havana, Cuba on 15 December 1898, as Collector of Customs for the Island of Cuba and the Port of Havana. On 13 June 1899 Bliss received an honorable discharge from the U.S. Volunteers and returned to the Regular Army. While serving as Chief, Collector of Customs for the Island of Cuba and the Port of Havana he was also the President of the Commission to Revise the Cuban Tariff Treaty in 1901 and was appointed to the Army War College Board as Special Envoy to Cuba to negotiate the treaty ratification in November and December 1902. The Treaty was ratified and signed on 17 December 1903.

In 1900, Bliss was elected as a veteran companion of the Pennsylvania Commandery of the Military Order of Foreign Wars.

Senior command

General Tasker Bliss c. 1910s

Bliss was commissioned as a brigadier general in the Regular Army by an Act of Congress under direction of the U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt. On 15 August 1903, Bliss was appointed a member of the General Staff, Chief, 3rd Division and President of the Army War College. In September 1904, he participated in the Manassas maneuvers in Virginia.

On 7 June 1905, Bliss was ordered the Philippine Islands to command the Department of Luzon. On 9 January 1906, he was assigned as commander of the Department of Mindanao, commanding U.S. troops in the Moro Rebellion. On 16 April 1906, Bliss assumed the office of governor for Moro Province after its previous governor, General Leonard Wood was forced to resign due to the controversy surrounding the First Battle of Bud Dajo. While still governor of Moro province, Bliss was ordered to command the Philippine Division on 14 December 1908. He relinquished all Philippine Islands commands on 6 April 1909, and returned to the U.S. after touring China and Manchuria.

Bliss was assigned to the general staff and president of the U.S. Army War College, 19 June 1909. On 12 August 1910, he was assigned to command the Department of California, in San Francisco, California. On 13 August 1911, he was assigned as Commander, Department of the East, Fort Totten, New York, and subsequently assigned to Commander, Department of the South, Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, Texas on 26 February 1913.

World War I and Paris Peace Conference

The delegation of the United States (centered: John J. Pershing, General Tasker H. Bliss, President Woodrow Wilson, Edward Mandell House, Henry White, Robert Lansing) signing the Treaty of Versailles in 1919. – National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC, Smithsonian Institution, NPG.65.83, oil on canvas from John Christen Johansen.

On 13 February 1915, Bliss was detailed to the general staff as Assistant Chief of Staff, Army until his promotion to chief of staff on 22 September 1917. He was promoted to major general in the Regular Army on 20 November 1915 and received a temporary promotion to full general (four star) in the National Army on 6 October 1917, exactly six months after the American entry into World War I. On 17 November 1917, he was assigned as the American Permanent Military Representative, Supreme War Council, concurrent with the U.S. Army Chief of Staff position.

British King George V with Generals Tasker H. Bliss and John J. Pershing inspecting American troops from U.S. II Corps, 6 August 1918.

Bliss was forced to retire due to age limitations on 31 December 1917, but by order of President Woodrow Wilson, was recalled to active duty on 1 January 1918 and sent to Versailles, France, on 23 January to better carry out his duties on the Supreme War Council. He was relieved as U.S. Army Chief of Staff on 19 May 1918, and returned to his permanent rank of major general (retired) 20 May 1918.^[3] After the signing of the armistice ending World War I, on 11 November 1918, Bliss held two titles, the American Permanent Military Representative, Supreme War Council, and also, Plenipotentiary at the Paris Peace Conference. This assignment was concluded on 10 December 1919.

For his services during the war Bliss was awarded with the Army Distinguished Service Medal, the citation for which reads:

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Army Distinguished Service Medal to General Tasker Howard Bliss, United States Army, for exceptionally meritorious and distinguished services to the Government of the United States, in a duty of great responsibility during World War I, in his most exceptional services as Assistant Chief of Staff, acting Chief of Staff, and Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army, in which important positions his administrative ability and professional attainments were of great value to our armies. As Chief of the American section of the Supreme War Council, General Bliss has taken an important part in the shaping of the policies that have brought victory to our cause.^[4]