Five volumes constituting a memoir typewritten by General Zenas Randall Bliss, a medal-of-honor recipient and career military officer who spent most of service on the Texas frontier. The content of this manuscript was published as “The Reminiscences of Major General Zenas R. Bliss, 1854-1876: From the Texas Frontier to the Civil War and Back Again” in 2008 by the Texas State Historical Association. Ostensibly Bliss’ personal copy, the volumes included here are signed various times by Bliss with one inscription that reads “ZR Bliss, his book, Aug. 1889.”
Described as a staple resource for Texas frontier research, Bliss's memoir is a rare and important primary account of Texas' military and cultural history in the early 19th century. It details his graduation from West Point in 1854, his pre-war service on the Texas frontier, his experience as a Civil War commander/POW, and his return to the Texas frontier in 1870. Bliss was awarded the Medal of Honor for gallantry as the Battle of Fredericksburg during the Civil War, and is well-known today for organizing a detachment of Seminole-Negro Indian scouts from Mexico, the first such unit formed.
 
[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Native American, Mexican American War, Indian Wars]