Zenas Randall Bliss (April 17, 1835 – January 2, 1900) was an officer and general in the United States Army and a recipient of the Medal of Honor.

He formed the first unit of Seminole-Negro Indian Scouts, and his detailed memoirs chronicled life on the Texas frontier.

[2] He received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, in July 1850 when he was only fifteen years old.

He was captured by Confederate forces and spent eleven months as a prisoner of war, first in San Antonio, Texas, and later in Richmond, Virginia.

He was finally exchanged in April 1862 and sent back to Union lines, where he was commissioned as Colonel of the Tenth Rhode Island Infantry the following month.

Bliss was badly injured by a horse at Spotsylvania, but he returned to lead his brigade in the Siege of Petersburg and the Battle of the Crater.

During the Civil War, Bliss received a brevet (honorary promotion) to major dated December 13, 1862, for "gallantry and meritorious service" in the Battle of Fredericksburg.

[1] Bliss remained in the Regular Army after the Civil War and was promoted to major of the 39th Infantry Regiment on August 6, 1867.