William Wallace Smith Bliss
William Wallace Smith Bliss | |
|---|---|
Daguerreotype by unknown photographer, c. 1848 | |
| Private Secretary to the President | |
| In office March 4, 1849 – July 9, 1850 | |
| President | Zachary Taylor |
| Preceded by | Joseph Knox Walker |
| Succeeded by | Millard Powers Fillmore |
| Personal details | |
| Born | August 17, 1815 Whitehall, New York |
| Died | August 5, 1853 (aged 37) |
William Wallace Smith Bliss (August 17, 1815 – August 5, 1853) was a United States Army officer, mathematics professor, and esteemed linguist.
Bliss taught mathematics at West Point, and served as a line officer through the duration of his military career.
Gifted at languages, he was able to read thirteen and could speak a number of those fluently. When he become interested in the various Native American tribes, Bliss learned a number of their tongues and studied their cultures. He was a member of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquaries of Copenhagen, Denmark, and an Honorary Member of the American Ethnological Society.
Bliss was an aid to then-General Zachary Taylor in Texas from 1845 to 1848, including the duration of the Mexican-American War. In December 1848 he married Mary Elizabeth Taylor, then President-elect Taylor's youngest daughter. Bliss would go on leave from the Army and serve as Taylor's presidential secretary until Taylor's untimely death in 1850. Resuming his duties, Bliss contracted yellow fever in New Orleans in 1853 and died in Mississippi at the age of 37.