The Bonus Army Marches on Washington
Thousands of World War I veterans camp in the capital and are driven out by the Army
Quick facts
- Bonus promised
- 1924, payable in 1945
- Marchers
- Between 10,000 and 20,000
- Camp cleared
- July 28, 1932
- Army commander
- General Douglas MacArthur
What happened
In 1924 Congress had promised World War I veterans a service bonus, payable in 1945. With the Depression deepening, desperate veterans decided to march on Washington in 1932 to demand immediate payment. Calling themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force, they hitched rides and rode freight trains to the capital, where they set up shanty camps, the largest on the Anacostia Flats. Their numbers reached somewhere between 10,000 and 20,000. The House voted to pay the bonus but the Senate rejected it. On July 28, 1932, the Hoover administration sent in troops led by General Douglas MacArthur, with cavalry and infantry, to expel the marchers and burn their camp.
Why it matters
The sight of the U.S. Army driving unarmed veterans and their families out of the capital became a symbol of Hoover's failure to grasp the human cost of the Depression, and it damaged him badly in the 1932 election. The Bonus Army also foreshadowed the mass protest politics of the 1930s, and its integrated camps, where Black and white veterans lived and demonstrated together, stood out in a segregated era.
How we know
The march and its violent end are documented by the National Park Service and by the National Archives, drawing on contemporary newspaper coverage, government records, and photographs of the encampments and their clearing.
Sources
- U.S. National Park Service. The 1932 Bonus Army · Reputable sourcenps.gov · The domain "nps.gov" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- National Archives, Pieces of History. The 1932 Bonus Army: Black and White Americans Unite in March on Washington · Primary sourceprologue.blogs.archives.gov · The domain "prologue.blogs.archives.gov" is on our Primary source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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