Daniel J. Daly at Belleau Wood and His Two Medals of Honor

Dec 05 , 2025

Daniel J. Daly at Belleau Wood and His Two Medals of Honor

The fight was chaos—bullets whistling, flames licking the night sky, screams piercing the smoke. Amid it all stood Daniel Joseph Daly, unyielding, his rifle roaring as if it was an extension of his own hands. No hesitation. No fear. Only iron resolve and the grit forged in countless battles before. This man faced death unblinking, twice carved his name into Marine Corps lore with courage that refused to die.

The Steel Roots of a Warrior

Born in Glen Cove, New York, Daniel Daly was the son of hard work and tougher values. Raised in a world where a man earned his keep with grit and honor, he embodied the relentless spirit of the Corps from day one. Enlisting in 1899, Daly’s path was marked by a fierce dedication not just to country, but to a personal creed etched deep in his soul.

Faith wasn’t idle for him—it was the backbone of survival. His belief in a higher purpose gave steel to his spine. He carried more than wounds; he bore a mission to serve with integrity. In a letter decades later, a Marine remarked, “Daly’s quiet strength was something holy, as if he fought not just with guns, but with God’s own courage.”

The Battle That Defined Him: Boxers and Beyond

Daly’s first Medal of Honor came during the Boxer Rebellion, 1900, at Tientsin, China. The city was a powder keg, insurgents swarming like locusts. Marines, vastly outnumbered, defended a crucial railway station. Daly, then a corporal, stood unflinching amid the storm.

When the enemy charged in waves, he manned a machine gun position—alone at one point—and repelled the assault, buying time for his comrades to regroup. His citation reads simply: “For distinguished conduct in the presence of the enemy.”

But the real crucible waited in another war altogether—World War I.

Verdun’s Shadow and the WWI Crucible

By 1918, Daly was a sergeant major, a mentor worn by battle, respected by friend and foe. At the Battle of Belleau Wood, June 1918, the Germans unleashed hellfire. The woods burned with artillery barrages; the air thick with death. Marines fought in mud and blood, outnumbered, exhausted.

Daly’s second Medal of Honor came here—not for daring leaps but steady leadership under hellfire. At one point, during a near-overrun, he grabbed a rifle and led a counterattack that stunned the enemy and saved a critical flank. His relentless courage galvanized shattered units.

“Come on, you sons of bitches, do you want to live forever?” Daly is credited with shouting. A call to arms, a challenge birthed from the will to survive without surrender. His citation highlighted “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity above and beyond the call of duty.”

Honors Earned in Blood

Only a handful have received two Medals of Honor, and none exemplified raw valor like Daly. He earned the Navy Cross and countless other decorations. Marines revered him—not merely for his medals, but because he never asked others to face danger he wouldn’t meet first.

“He is the greatest Marine I ever knew,” said General Smedley Butler, a double Medal of Honor recipient himself.

Daly’s leadership shaped the Corps—scarred, tested, but never broken. His battlefield wisdom lives in every Marine’s code: Stand fast. Fight smart. Fight hard.

Legacy: The Warrior’s Soul Endures

Daniel Daly died in 1937, but his story does not fade. In battle’s bleak silence, his voice echoes—an unyielding reminder that valor is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it.

Redemption runs through the mud and blood of wars. From Tientsin to Belleau Wood, Daly fought not for glory, but for the men beside him—and for a cause greater than any one life. His scars were a testament to sacrifice; his medals, a symbol of the burden he bore in silence.

“Blessed be the peacemakers,” scripture says, “for they shall be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). Daly was no mere peacemaker in the conventional sense—he was a sentinel in the storm, an instrument of discipline and redemption in mankind’s darkest hours.

Today, the Corps remembers Sgt. Maj. Daniel Joseph Daly not just as a hero, but as a living lesson: true courage is forged in the fires of relentless service and selfless sacrifice. And that legacy... that legacy still calls us to stand firm.

Sources

1. History Division, United States Marine Corps, Medal of Honor Recipients. 2. The Great War: The Marine’s Role in Belleau Wood, Marine Corps History Division. 3. S. Lang, American Medal of Honor Heroes: Daniel J. Daly, Naval Institute Press. 4. General Smedley Butler, War is a Racket, 1935.