Michael David Kaplan

No Law But the Gun Michael David Kaplan

Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War, fourteen year old runaway David Frakes Day told the so-called, "patriotic lie" when he falsified his age and enlisted in the 57th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. His courageous feats during the May 21, 1863 charge on Vicksburg eventually earned him a Medal of Honor. Another result of his heroics was his assignment to intelligence duties, making him the youngest individual in American military history to have that mission full-time. His remarkable break outs from Andersonville and other military prisons and his escape one night before his scheduled execution upon another occasion, remain the stuff of legend. Day's postwar career as a muckraking journalist in Colorado proved no less treacherous. He angered powerful enemies with his investigative reporting of corrupt politicians and mining officials, and survived assassination attempts, physical assaults, and 100 unsuccessful libel suits filed against him. He went on to become an accomplished humorist whose work was popular on two continents. In this biography, Day emerges from historical obscurity to take his rightful place among the most intriguing figures of the Civil War and the American West.