“Devil Dog” Dan Daly

More than 40 million Americans have served in the U.S. military during wartime. Only 3500 have been awarded the Medal of Honor. Of these, three have received the medal twice. One was recommended for it a third time. Marine Corps Sergeant Major Daniel J. Daly was an unlikely hero at five feet, six inches tall and 132 pounds. What he lacked in size he made up for in grit. He received his first Medal of Honor for single-handedly holding off enemy attacks during China’s Boxer Rebellion of 1900, the second for his daring, one-man action during an ambush in Haiti in 1915. He was nominated for (but not awarded) an unprecedented third medal in World War I for his valor at Belleau Wood, where he led a charge against the German stronghold with the battle cry, “Come on you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?” This first full-length biography presents a detailed examination of a Marine Corps legend.

Charley Roberts is a journalist and military historian. He has been an investigative reporter and state capital correspondent for the Orange County Register and Washington bureau chief and executive editor of the Los Angeles Daily Journal. He lives in Roseville, California.

Charley Roberts
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 242
Bibliographic Info: 13 photos, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2021
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8676-9
eISBN: 978-1-4766-4461-5
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments  ix
Preface: Even Heroes Have Heroes  1
One—An Epic Moment  5
Two—The Making of the Man  7
Three—Marine Recruit  14
Four—The Boxer Rebellion  19
Five—Peking Siege  27
Six—Love in War  40
Seven—Sea Soldier  47
Eight—Vera Cruz  56
Nine—Haiti  71
Ten—Dominican Republic  91
Eleven—Over There  103
Twelve—Chateau Thierry  113
Thirteen—Belleau Wood  123
Fourteen—The Third Medal of Honor  143
Fifteen—Soissons  152
Sixteen—St. Mihiel  160
Seventeen—Blanc Mont Ridge  167
Eighteen—­Meuse-Argonne  179
Nineteen—Final Years  188
Twenty—Daly’s Legacy  199
Sergeant Major Daniel J. Daly’s Medals and Citations  205
Chapter Notes  209
Bibliography  223
Index  229

“While there has been much written about Sergeant Major Dan Daly, I can’t imagine a book more detailed or well-researched.”—Michael Archer, military historian, 2019 winner of the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation’s Col. Joseph Alexander Award for biography