On May 22, 1862, Governor William Sprague issued general orders for the raising of the 7th Rhode Island Infantry Regiment.

The majority were fifteen- to thirty-year-old farmers and mill workers from southern and western Rhode Island who enlisted in the regiment under the call of President Abraham Lincoln for 300,000 men to defend the Union following a series of humiliating defeats in Virginia.

Bliss was a graduate of West Point and had attained the rank of captain in the Eighth United States Infantry Regiment.

In the years ahead he would transform these men from Rhode Island from untrained volunteers into a regiment on par with the United States Regulars.

The Seventh Rhode Island Volunteers was mustered into the service of the United States to serve for three years on September 6, 1862.

In addition the Seventh was clothed in the full uniform of the United States Army; a feature of their coats being a very high collar.

Here they remained for several weeks before joining the First Brigade, Second Division, Ninth Corps on October 6, encamped outside Sharpsburg, Maryland following the victory at Antietam a month earlier.

The Seventh remained encamped at Pleasant Valley, Maryland, for three weeks, perfecting its drill, while losing several members of the regiment to disease and the elements.

The Army of the Potomac had to attack across a wide open plain to reach a Confederate division entrenched behind a sunken road.

After halting in the middle of the field to fire their Enfields, the Seventh surged forward in an attempt to flank the wall; they were repulsed by "a perfect volcano of flame."

Following the Battle of Fredericksburg, the Seventh Rhode Island returned to its winter camp across the Rappahannock River near Falmouth, Virginia.

In June the Seventh left Cairo, Illinois as reinforcements for Ulysses S. Grant’s army as they besieged Vicksburg, Mississippi.

The Seventh was in reserve at Cold Harbor, where 7,000 Union soldiers became casualties in less than ten minutes; but were engaged in skirmishes at Bethesda Church and Mechanicsville.

With such a reduced number men, the Seventh Rhode Island was pulled off the line and acted as engineers for the Second Division, Ninth Corps.

The Seventh remained here until April 2, 1865, when they helped storm into Petersburg and then pursued Lee to Appomattox Court House.

On March 13, 1865, General Ulysses S. Grant formally gave his permission for the Seventh Rhode Island Volunteers to paint the following engagements upon their colors where they had fought and died: Fredericksburg, Vicksburg, Jackson, Spotsylvania, North Anna, Cold Harbor, Petersburg, Weldon Railroad, Poplar Spring Church, and Hatcher’s Run.