Wesley Merritt

Wesley Merritt (June 16, 1836 – December 3, 1910) was a general in the United States Army during the American Civil War and the Spanish–American War. He served with distinction in the cavalry in the Civil War and Indian Wars. He was the first American Military Governor of the Philippines in August 1898 until being relieved to advise the United States delegation in the peace negotiations.

Early life

Merritt was born in New York City. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1860 and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the 2nd U.S. Dragoons, serving initially in Utah under John Buford. He became the adjutant for the unit when it was renamed the 2nd U.S. Cavalry.

Civil War

In 1862, Merritt was appointed captain in the 2nd Cavalry and served as an aide-de-camp to Brig. Gen. Philip St. George Cooke, who commanded the Cavalry Department of the Army of the Potomac. He served in the defenses of Washington, D.C., for the rest of 1862. In 1863, he was appointed adjutant for Maj. Gen. George Stoneman and participated in Stoneman's Raid in the Battle of Chancellorsville in 1863.

Overseas Filipinos

An Overseas Filipino (Filipino: Mga Pilipino sa ibang bansa) is a person of Filipino origin who lives outside of the Philippines. This term applies to Filipinos who are abroad indefinitely as citizens or as permanent residents of a different country and to those Filipino citizens abroad for a limited, definite period, such as on a work contract or as students. It can also include seamen and others who work outside the Philippines but are neither permanent nor temporary residents of another country. As a result of this migration, many countries have substantial Filipino communities.

Overseas Filipinos are known by a variety of terms with slightly different and sometimes overlapping meanings. Overseas Contract Workers, also known as OCWs, are Filipinos working abroad that are expected to return permanently either upon the expiration of a work contract or upon retirement. Balikbayans are Filipinos who have become citizens of another country and have returned to the Philippines for temporary visits. Global Filipino is a term of more recent vintage that is less widely used. Overseas Filipino Investor or OFIs are those Filipino expatriates who contribute to the economy through remittances, buying properties and creating businesses. This was coined by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, the 14th President of the Philippines.

Filipinos

The Filipinos (Filipino: Mga Pilipino) are a Southeast Asian ethnic group who are identified and native to the Philippines who share a common Filipino culture and ancestry. According to the 2010 Census, there were 92,337,852 in the Philippines and about 10 million living outside the Philippines but the domestic population was believed to have topped one hundred million in July 2014.

There are around 180 languages and dialects spoken in the Philippines by their respective Filipino ethnolinguistic groups or simply ethnic groups, the vast majority of them belonging to the Austronesian language family, with Tagalog and Cebuano having the greatest number of native speakers. The official languages of the Philippines are Filipino and English and most Filipinos are bilingual or trilingual.

Filipinos are made up of more than 175 ethnic groups around the Philippines and are a mosaic of influences throughout hundreds of years of history shared with neighbors and faraway colonizers. The Filipino identity, with its Austronesian roots, was developed with Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Spanish and American influences.