2024_0326_1350

This transcription is about a Marine named Dan Daly who exemplifies the values of the Marine Corps. His military record is well-known, but not much is known about his personal life. In 1900, during the Boxer Rebellion in China, Daly and a small force of Marines and foreign soldiers defended the legate quarters in Peking against thousands of Boxer rebels. They faced many challenges, including language barriers, different weapons, and a lack of provisions. Daly and the Marines fought bravely and successfully defended their position against the enemy. Ladies and gentlemen, on today's show, we dive into the finest fighting force in all of America, possibly the finest fighting force in all the world. We're going to be talking about one of the greatest Marines of all time. Now you have plenty of Marines in Marine lore. You've got Chesty Poehler, Smedley Butler, John Bazelon, the currently still serving Lieutenant Colonel James Cohen. But in my opinion, this man exemplifies everything the Marine Corps stands for. He is a man who is a two-time Medal of Honor recipient, possibly should have been four in my opinion, and he is a metaphorical giant of a man, Dan Daly. Now Dan Daly's military record is highly decorated and well-known, however, his personal life is not so much. In fact, a recruiter's bulletin in 1919 once said, trying to get biological data from Daly, about Daly, is like quizzing the Sphinx. They're both non-committal. Dan Daly stood in a whopping 5'6", 132 pounds. Remember how I said metaphorical giant? That'd be why. The vague knowledge of Daly's upbringing starts with his birth. Marine Corps enlistment papers stated he was born November 11, 1873, while records in his native Ireland state he was born November 26, 1870. So we don't even really know truly how old the man was. I kinda tend to go with the Marine Corps side, I mean, it was making him actually younger, so it's not like the men back in World War II who were trying to make it so they were older so they could actually join, so we're just gonna go with the Marine Corps one. He grew up in a large family with his mother, Ellen Donovan, and father, John J. Daly, and five other siblings. It was a rather rough upbringing. His father died while Daly was still only in his teens and caused him to have to work going out on the streets, helping to gain money for the family. He started as a paperboy in Manhattan, then got a more stable employment with the DeVoe Manufacturing Factory, but this was something that he wasn't satisfied with. January 10, 1899, the Marine Corps legend began. He enlisted in the Marines, and then after graduating boot camp, Daly began working in the Marines on the USS Newark as it sailed around South America with stops in the Manila Bay for some time. Though these actions were peaceful, that part of his career came to an end in 1899, with the start of what is known as the Boxer Rebellion. The Boxer Rebellion stemmed from several European colonies establishing zones of influence in China. The Chinese government, they were too weak at this time to stop those zones of influences from being set, and the zones were to help further their other country's economic benefits and have nothing to give back to the Chinese people. It was these actions that saw what was known as the rise of the Righteous and Harmonious Fist. The Righteous and Harmonious Fist practiced martial arts, and its followers came to believe that they couldn't be harmed by foreign bullets, which bold strategy got, and we're going to see if that one pays off. And by the spring of 1900, the rebellion boiled over with thousands of supporters, and even had the tacit support of the Dowager Empress. This led to Imperial forces not opposing the rebellion, but actually helping them in what they were doing. They started with attacks on local missionaries throughout China, and then began to march on the large city of Peking, which is what brings our hero Dan Daly into the story. On May 20th, 1900, the USS Newark set sail from Manila Bay en route to China, with Dan Daly on board. The legend was about to be brought to life, and Daly and 56 other marines in this small force landed in Tencent on May 27th, then they took a railroad car to Peking on May 31st. When they reached Peking, they had a total of 350 men. Their numbers were augmented by soldiers from Britain, France, Italy, Japan, and Russia. They quick marched seven miles into the city to get to their country's legations. Peking was a massive city, numbering at the time nearly one million people. The city was broken up into numerous walled portions, some walls being nearly 40 feet high and 50 feet wide at the tops. Peking quarters, where all the foreign countries stayed, was roughly a square three quarters of a mile on each side, roughly 72 city blocks, with the American section being on the southwest side. When Daly and the marines marched into the American sector, they were met by the American legate Edwin Conger, who is said to have stated, thank God you've come, now we are safe. He knew what the marines could do. He may have been a little premature on that statement though, because on June 13th, hostilities actually began with German marines killing 10 of the Boxer rebels. This lit the fuse, causing the Boxers to riot throughout the city, with an estimated 4,000 shops and homes being burned in that day alone. The Boxer rebels, they continued burning Christian cathedrals to the ground and hacking any Chinese converts to death. Ten marines and 20 Russian troops then went outside of the legate quarters in an attempt to bring in the refugees, and it was there they ran into a group of Boxers. They killed 50 of them, and they saved nearly 300 refugees at the time. Hostilities continued the next day. American and Japanese and British troops engaged with another group of Boxers near the temple on the Russian legate side. They killed an additional 58 Boxers and still had yet to lose a man. Maybe showing the whole can't be killed by a foreign bullet thing probably wasn't the best strategy. After heated debates, the legates decided they'd leave the city. After hearing no response, an angry German diplomat decided to travel out of the compound to demand an answer from the Chinese foreign minister. After not getting too far, a Chinese army officer, who was in full dress uniform, stepped out in front of the German diplomat's vehicle and shot the man to death in the street. So, as you can see, they were helping the Boxers themselves. It was actually Daley and a small group of Marines and foreign soldiers they rushed out in an attempt to rescue the diplomat, but they were quickly beat back by a horde of rebels. They were all but assured there would be no mercy. Knowing no mercy would be shown, the American legate congress sent an urgent message to a Methodist mission outside of the quarter saying, hey, you've got to come at once within the legation lines and bring your Chinese with you. Daley and the Marines, they pushed out to provide security for the missionaries to get back safely. One missionary, Mary Gamewell, was to have said, a great hush seemed to have settled upon the city, as if in awe of the enormity of the crime committed, or holding its breath for an expected explosion. And she was proven right. It was June 20th, marked the beginning of a 55-day siege, with an estimated 400 defenders at the legate quarters while they beat back Daley attacks by an enemy estimated at about 50,000 Boxer rebels and Imperial Army troops. The nations quickly realized they had a few key things working against them besides, you know, the 50,000 troops. One, they all spoke different languages. Now imagine trying to coordinate a battle with men you can't even talk to. Two, they had different weapons requiring different ammo to try out. Two, they also had different weapons which all required different ammo. Three, they had way too few provisions for an extended siege. And four, the size of the area they were attempting to defend was huge in comparison to the measly defending numbers that they had. It was on June 23rd that the attacks began in earnest. The Chinese forces attacked a portion of the wall covered by Chinese soldiers firing from another nearby wall. They managed to breach the wall where many of the Chinese converts were being held and despite a large number of rebels, Japanese forces actually rushed in and were able to beat back the invading Boxers. June 24th was a sad day that marked the very first Marine casualty when a Marine private was shot and killed by sniper fire near an enemy wall. Enraged, German and Marine forces marched to the wall and pushed the snipers back. The forces began to take weathering counter fire and after three hours, the Marines had cleared the walls and brought up a machine gun to beat back the further Chinese advances. The Marines then erected a barricade covering the majority of the 50-foot portion of the wall near the end. The Chinese seeing the barricade, they launched their own assault on the position. However, Daley and the Marines, they fought hard with Daley distinguishing himself, taking out the Chinese attack with his rifle, fists, bayonets, and the Marines were able to hold their positions. Fifteen Marines stayed to guard the barricade on top of the wall with an additional eight guarding the barricade at the bottom of the ramp. Enemy sniper fire made relieving the stationed troops impossible except during the nighttime. In June 27th, saw an attack on the barricade by 200 boxer rebels. Daley was at the barricade at the time and emptied his rifle into the oncoming horde before jumping over the barricade and going Leroy Jenkins on the attacking boxers. He used his rifle as a club, beating many more back. The Chinese then retreated and set up their own barricade on top of the wall 100 yards from the Marines. So, it's a little bit of a Mexican standoff here. Now July 1st, saw German troops driven from their barricade on top of a wall near their compound. This gave the Chinese the ability to fire into the Marine Corps barricade from behind them. The Marines abandoned the position momentarily before being reinforced by 20 British Marines. They then raced back up the wall, built another barricade to protect them from the Chinese fire coming from the rear and while they were down, Chinese troops advanced and built another barricade of their own, literally just a stone's throw away from the Marines. How do we know that it was a stone's throw away, you may ask? Well, Chinese troops, probably for a laugh, began lobbing rocks at the Marines. The Chinese then erected a taller barricade and were able to begin launching larger stones on the Marine positions. The Marine commander, Captain Myers, put together a force of 15 Marines, 15 British soldiers and 7 Russians for an attack. They waited until 2.30 a.m. and quietly crept on the sides of the wall towards the Chinese emplacement. Daly himself was leading one of the columns. The Marines began firing blindly. The Chinese began firing blindly down the center of the wall, missing all the attackers. Two of the Marines managed to sneak to the rear of the Chinese and began firing at them. At that, the attack force surged forward and a battle with fists, bayonets and rifles unfolded. As the dust settled, 50 to 60 Chinese were killed, with only 3 of the friendly forces killed. Unfortunately, 2 of them were the brave Marines who snuck around the Chinese, and there was also an additional 6 wounded. Now, a couple of breaks came for the defending forces. First was when a group of Chinese converts, being protected by the defenders, they found a 3-inch muzzle-loading cannon the defenders could now use to fire at the Chinese forces. And the second break was a Tom and Jerry style move. When the Chinese were building another barricade near the Japanese position, the Japanese forces realized the Chinese had all set their rifles down and were constructing the barricade. So the Chinese very quietly snuck out, gathered all the Chinese rifles and snuck them back to their position, leaving them with nothing to fire back at the Japanese. Now, June 13th saw another charge of nearly 500 Chinese rebels. They charged the German position, where they met stiff resistance from the Germans as well as accurate fire from Marine sharpshooters on top of their wall. Seeing the blind charges weren't working, the Chinese then decided to detonate a mine in the tunnel they had dug. The blast did take down the building and kill two Frenchmen, but not only was the following attack beat back, but during the blast, 30 of the rebels who were standing too close also died before the fight even started. Then it was on the night of July 14th that Dan Daly showed what a true badass he was. That night, Daly and the new Marine commander, Captain Hall, who'd taken over for a bedridden Captain Myers, they snuck up behind their barricade to a fortified extension of the wall. Captain Hall told Daly he needed a volunteer to stay back and repel any Chinese while he gathered more Marines and sandbags to fortify the position. Captain Hall was to have stated, I won't order you to stay here, but if you can hold them back tonight, they'll never drive us back tomorrow. Which, the ever talkative Daly, he responded, I'll stay. See you in the morning, Captain. And the night of hell for Daly began. Daly lined up ammunition in front of him and waited, and he didn't have to wait long for the Chinese to approach him. Daly took careful aim and he dropped two men each with a single bullet, but this all alerted the Chinese that there were Marines on that position still. The Chinese cautiously sent small groups forward, only to meet an intense, angry little Marine who casually killed every Marine. The Chinese cautiously sent small groups forward, only to meet an entrenched, angry little Marine who casually killed every Chinese Rebel that came forward. Then four Chinese rushed his position. Daly quickly fired three shots, dropping three of the Rebels. The fourth was met with a bayonet to the chest. Daly just managed to step aside and miss a slash from the man's bayonet himself. Daly then slammed his rifle butt into the man and knocked him off the wall. Daly beat back several more charges towards his position while waiting for daylight and the relief. The next morning, a relief force of Marines came and found Daly still holding his position. The Marines didn't count the number of dead that lay in front of Daly. They pushed the bodies off the wall and erected the new barricade. Now legend says that there were nearly 200 dead Chinese from Daly's stand, though most say that's a gross exaggeration. Who knows? Daly's a bad man, so heck, maybe it was 200. After this, there was a brief truce between the two sides. One notable event was when a meeting between the two sides saw a Chinese colonel ask, Who are the men with the big hats? They were referring to the Marines. On being told this, the colonel stated, I don't understand them at all. They don't shoot very often, but when they do, I lose a man. My men are afraid of them. So the Chinese knew. And that just, you know, further pushed the Marine Corps' reputation of being just complete badasses. The truce came to an abrupt end, though, on July 29th. A Marine private, Oscar Upham, said in his journal, The war is on in earnest. The Chinese started it by picking off some of our coolies. We retaliated by picking off a few of them off their roost. This brought a general engagement. We feel better for having something to do than what we did during the truce. The forces were given word, though, that there was a relief force soon to be leaving from Tietzen with 10,000 troops to help then-siege forces. However, they then got word that it would be later than expected, and then another letter saying that, no, it would still be even later than that. So the Marines and their counterparts, they continued fighting and waiting for that relief force. August 13th finally brought the relief outside the city. The Marines and other defenders had another day of determined resistance from the rebels to attempt to wipe them out before the relief could arrive. But Daley and the others fought back with the same intensity and beat back every single attack. At the end of the siege, of the total Marines who first came to Peking, eight were dead and nine suffered wounds. Thirty-three Medals of Honor were awarded during the Boxer Rebellion, with our own Dan Daley being one of the recipients. Of the illustrious honor, Daley said, Oh, hell, 22 Marines and sailors got the Medal of Honor during the scrap. Why pick on me? He was a very talkative and boisterous man, obviously. And he also shows that old-school grit of not wanting attention, and to him it was just a job, even though he might have killed 200 men in one night all by himself, but hey, just a job. Now, I do feel the need to bring up something else that was said of Daley during the siege. However, these claims were never verified by anybody, which isn't unsurprising because Daley wouldn't have verified anything himself anyways. But while Daley was rolling around fighting the Chinese during the day, it seems he was doing a different kind of rolling around at night. Allegedly, Daley was carrying on an affair during the siege with Annie Chamott, who was married to the Swiss proprietor of the Hotel Pekin, August Chamott. Now again, this has never been verified, and who knows where he would have found the time for a little late night rendezvous. However, Daley was a hell of a marine, and could definitely improvise, adapt, and overcome any situation, so you never know, maybe he was having a little late night tryst with the lady.