Wesley Merritt (16 June 1836-3 December 1910) was a US Army Major-General who served in the American Civil War, Plains Indian Wars, Spanish-American War, and Philippine-American War and as Military Governor of the Philippines from 14 to 30 August 1898 (preceding Elwell Stephen Otis).
Biography[]
Wesley Merritt was born in New York City, New York in 1836, and he graduated from West Point in 1860 and served under John Buford in the US Army dragoons in Utah before the outbreak of the American Civil War. He served in the Army of the Potomac's cavalry corps during the war, and he was promoted to Brigadier-General after the Battle of Brandy Station, at which he was wounded. Merritt ended the war as Philip Sheridan's second-in-command at the Appomattox campaign, after which he participated in the Reconstruction-era occupation of Texas. He commanded the US 5th Cavalry Regiment during the Plains Indian Wars, including at the Battle of Slim Buttes in 1876, and he served on the frontier until he was appointed to serve as Superintendent of West Point from 1882 to 1887. He was then promoted to Major-General in 1895, and, in June 1898, he led the newly-created 8th Army Corps from San Francisco to the Philippines to aid in the capture of the Philippine islands from Spain. He briefly served as military governor of the Philippines before being reassigned to advise the US delegation negotiating peace with Spain in Paris, and he retired in 1900 and died in Natural Bridge, Virginia in 1910.