Reply #37: Awesome post!! -- Don't forget "The Bonus Army"!

[Breeze54]

The Bonus Army

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snprelief4.htm

In 1924, a grateful Congress voted to give a bonus to World War I veterans - $1.25 for each day
served overseas, $1.00 for each day served in the States. The catch was that payment would not
be made until 1945.


Members of the Bonus Army encamp within sight of the Capitol, 1932


However, by 1932 the nation had slipped into the dark days of the Depression
and the unemployed veterans wanted their money immediately.

In May of that year, some 15,000 veterans, many unemployed and destitute, descended on Washington, D.C.
to demand immediate payment of their bonus. They proclaimed themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force but
the public dubbed them the "Bonus Army." Raising ramshackle camps at various places around the city, they waited.

The veterans made their largest camp at Anacostia Flats across the river from the Capitol.

Approximately 10,000 veterans, women and children lived in the shelters built from materials dragged out
of a junk pile nearby - old lumber, packing boxes and scrap tin covered with roofs of thatched straw.


Troops prepare to evacuate the Bonus Army July 28, 1932

Soldiers with fixed bayonets followed, hurling tear gas into the crowd.

By nightfall the BEF had retreated across the Anacostia River where Hoover ordered MacArthur to stop.

Ignoring the command, the general led his infantry to the main camp.

By early morning the 10,000 inhabitants were routed and the camp in flames.

Two babies died and nearby hospitals overwhelmed with casualties.

Eisenhower later wrote, "the whole scene was pitiful.

The veterans were ragged, ill-fed, and felt themselves badly abused.
To suddenly see the whole encampment going up in flames just added to the pity."

more.....


:kick: & Recommended!

Thank You!! :hug: