William Wallace Smith Bliss, USMA 1833

Born:    September 7, 1815 at Whitehall, NY.

Died:    August 5, 1853, East Pascagoula, Mississippi, Age 38.

• Assistant Professor of Mathematics, USMA, October 2, 1834 to June 1, 1837.
• Principal Assistant Professor of Mathematics, June 1, 1837 to January 4, 1840.
• Chief of Staff of General Taylor, August 6, 1845 to April 24, 1846.
• Private Secretary to President Zachary Taylor (1784-1850), his Father-in-Law, March 4, 1849  to July 9, 1850, i.e., from the day before Taylor became President until the day he died.
• Degree of A. M. conferred by Dartmouth College, 1848.

He is buried in the Girod Street Cemetery in New Orleans, which is near the site of the present-day Louisiana Superdome. There is a photoprint of the Bliss Monument by Charles Lawhon in the Williams Research Center of the Historic New Orleans Collection (Accession number 1974.25.6.50).

Genealogy:

• Son of John Bliss, USMA 1811, Cullum #66, and Letitia M. Ellicott, the fifth child of Andrew Ellicott. Thus he is the grandson of Andrew Ellicott.
• On December 5 1848 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Bliss married Mary Elizabeth "Betty" Taylor, the youngest daughter and fifth child of President Zachary Taylor's six children. Here is Bliss pictured with his Father-in-Law.  [[[  LOST THE LINK. SEARCH THE WEB AGAIN.  TRY   http://www.npg.si.edu/exh/hall2/bigztay3s.htm    ]]]
• Possibly he is related to Albert Taylor Bledsoe.

References:

• His Cullum record is on line.  Cullum writes: "While a Cadet, Bliss exhibited marked mathematical ability, and, upon becoming a teacher at West Point, proved himself to be equal to the best qualified of the many competent instructors of mathematics who had preceded him, and, it may safely be said, no superior has succeeded him."
• No obituary is listed in Cullum.