Bonus Army The Bonus Army was the popular name of an assemblage of some 43 , 000 marchers — 17 , 000 World War I veterans , their families , and affiliated groups — who gathered in Washington , D . C . , in the spring and summer of 1932 to demand cash - payment redemption of their service certificates . Its organizers called it the Bonus Expeditionary Force to echo the name of World War I ' s American Expeditionary Force , while the media called it the Bonus March . It was led by Walter W . Waters , a former Army sergeant . Many of the war veterans had been out of work since the beginning of the Great Depression . The World War Adjusted Compensation Act of 1924 had awarded them bonuses in the form of certificates they could not redeem until 1945 . Each service certificate , issued to a qualified veteran soldier , bore a face value equal to the soldier ' s promised payment plus compound interest . The principal demand of the Bonus Army was the immediate cash payment of their certificates . Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler , one of the most popular military figures of the time , visited their camp to back the effort and encourage them . On July 28 , U . S . Attorney General William D . Mitchell ordered the veterans removed from all government property . Washington police met with resistance , shots were fired and two veterans were wounded and later died . Veterans were also shot dead at other locations during the demonstration . President Herbert Hoover then ordered the army to clear the veterans ' campsite . Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded the infantry and cavalry supported by six tanks . The Bonus Army marchers with their wives and children were driven out , and their shelters and belongings burned . A second , smaller Bonus March in 1933 at the start of the Roosevelt Administration was defused in May with an offer of jobs for the Civilian Conservation Corps at Fort Hunt , Virginia , which most of the group accepted . Those who chose not to work for the CCC by the May 22 deadline were given transportation home . In 1936 , Congress overrode President Franklin D . Roosevelt ' s veto and paid the veterans their bonus years early . Background . In 1781 , most of the Continental Army was demobilized without pay . Two years later , hundreds of Pennsylvania war veterans marched on Philadelphia , then the capital , surrounded the State House where the U . S . Congress was in session , and demanded their pay . Congress fled to Princeton , New Jersey , and several weeks later , the U . S . Army expelled the war veterans from the national capital . In response to that experience , the federal district directly governed by the U . S . Congress , Washington , D . C . , was excluded from the restrictions of the Posse Comitatus Act which forbade the use of the U . S . military for domestic police activity . The practice of war - time military bonuses began in 1776 , as payment for the difference between what a soldier earned and what he could have earned had he not enlisted . Breaking with tradition , the veterans of the Spanish – American War did not receive a bonus and , after World War I , their not receiving a military service bonus became a political matter when WWI veterans received only a $ 60 bonus . The American Legion , created in 1919 , led a political movement for an additional bonus . On May 15 , 1924 , President Calvin Coolidge vetoed a bill granting bonuses to veterans of World War I , saying : " patriotism . . . bought and paid for is not patriotism . " Congress overrode his veto a few days later , enacting the World War Adjusted Compensation Act . Each veteran was to receive a dollar for each day of domestic service , up to a maximum of $ 500 , and $ 1 . 25 for each day of overseas service , up to a maximum of $ 625 ( 2010 : $ 7 , 899 ) . Amounts of $ 50 or less were immediately paid . All other amounts were issued as Certificates of Service maturing in 20 years . Some 3 , 662 , 374 military service certificates were issued , with a face value of $ 3 . 638 billion ( 2010 : $ 43 . 7 billion ) . Congress established a trust fund to receive 20 annual payments of $ 112 million that , with interest , would finance the 1945 disbursement of the $ 3 . 638 billion due the veterans . Meanwhile , veterans could borrow up to 22 . 5 % of the certificate ' s face value from the fund ; but in 1931 , because of the Great Depression , Congress increased the maximum value of such loans to 50 % of the certificate ' s face value . Although there was Congressional support for the immediate redemption of the military service certificates , President Hoover and Republican congressmen opposed such action ; they reasoned that the government would have to increase taxes to cover the costs of the payout , and thus any potential recovery would be slowed . The Veterans of Foreign Wars continued to press the federal government to allow the early redemption of military service certificates . The first march of the unemployed was " Coxey ' s Army " in 1894 , when armies of men from various regions streamed to Washington as a " living petition " to demand that the federal government create jobs by investing in public infrastructure projects ( Donald L . McMurry , " Coxey ' s Army " , 1930 ) . In January 1932 , a march of 25 , 000 unemployed Pennsylvanians , dubbed " Cox ' s Army " , had marched on Washington , D . C , the largest demonstration to date in the nation ' s capital , setting a precedent for future marches by the unemployed . March . On June 15 , the House of Representatives passed the Wright Patman Bonus Bill which would have moved forward the date for World War I veterans to receive their cash bonus . Most of the Bonus Army camped in a Hooverville on the Anacostia Flats , a swampy , muddy area across the Anacostia River from the federal core of Washington , just south of the 11th Street Bridges ( now Section C of Anacostia Park ) . The camps , built from materials scavenged from a nearby rubbish dump , were tightly controlled by the veterans who laid out streets , built sanitation facilities , and held daily parades . To live in the camps , veterans were required to register and prove they had been honorably discharged . The Bonus Army massed at the United States Capitol on June 17 as the U . S . Senate defeated the Bonus Bill by a vote of 62 - 18 . Police shooting . The marchers remained at their campsite waiting for President Hoover to act . On July 28 , 1932 , Attorney General William D . Mitchell ordered the police to remove the Bonus Army veterans from their camp . When the veterans moved back into it , they rushed two policemen trapped on the second floor of a building . The cornered police drew their revolvers and shot two veterans , William Hushka and Eric Carlson , who died later . William Hushka ( 1895 – 1932 ) was an immigrant to the United States from Lithuania . When the U . S . entered World War I in 1917 , he sold his butcher shop in St . Louis , Missouri and joined the United States Army . After the war he lived in Chicago . Hushka is buried in Arlington National Cemetery . Eric Carlson ( 1894 – July 28 , 1932 ) was a U . S . veteran from Oakland , California . He fought in the trenches of France in World War I . He was interred in Arlington National Cemetery . When told of the shootings , President Hoover ordered the army to evict the Bonus Army from Washington . U . S . Army intervention . At 4 : 45 p . m . , commanded by Gen . Douglas MacArthur , the 12th Infantry Regiment , Fort Howard , Maryland , and the 3rd Cavalry Regiment , supported by six battle tanks commanded by Maj . George S . Patton , formed in Pennsylvania Avenue while thousands of civil service employees left work to line the street and watch . The Bonus Marchers , believing the troops were marching in their honor , cheered the troops until Patton ordered the cavalry to charge them — an action which prompted the spectators to yell , " Shame ! Shame ! " After the cavalry charged , the infantry , with fixed bayonets and tear gas ( adamsite , an arsenical vomiting agent ) entered the camps , evicting veterans , families , and camp followers . The veterans fled across the Anacostia River to their largest camp and President Hoover ordered the assault stopped . However Gen . MacArthur , feeling the Bonus March was an attempt to overthrow the U . S . government , ignored the President and ordered a new attack . Fifty - five veterans were injured and 135 arrested . A veteran ' s wife miscarried . When 12 - week - old Bernard Myers died in the hospital after being caught in the tear gas attack , a government investigation reported he died of enteritis , while a hospital spokesman said the tear gas " didn ' t do it any good . " During the military operation , Major Dwight D . Eisenhower , later the 34th President of the United States , served as one of MacArthur ' s junior aides . Believing it wrong for the Army ' s highest - ranking officer to lead an action against fellow American war veterans , he strongly advised MacArthur against taking any public role : " I told that dumb son - of - a - bitch not to go down there , " he said later . " I told him it was no place for the Chief of Staff . " Despite his misgivings , Eisenhower later wrote the Army ' s official incident report which endorsed MacArthur ' s conduct . Aftermath . Joe Angelo , a decorated hero from the war who saved Patton ' s life , approached him the day after to sway him . Rather than accept and listen to the man whom he had decorated himself for his bravery under fire , Patton coldly rejected him and stated " I do not know this man . Take him away and under no circumstances permit him to return . " This episode was said to represent the proverbial essence of the Bonus Army , each man the face of each side ; Angelo the dejected loyal soldier , Patton the unmoved government instrument unconcerned with past duties . MGM released the movie " Gabriel Over the White House " in March 1933 . Produced by William Randolph Hearst ' s Cosmopolitan Pictures , it depicted a fictitious President Hammond who , in the film ' s opening scenes , refuses to deploy the military against a march of the unemployed and instead creates an " Army of Construction " to work on public works projects until the economy recovers . First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt judged the movie ' s treatment of veterans superior to Hoover ' s . The Bonus Army incident proved disastrous for Hoover ' s chances at re - election ; he lost the 1932 election in a landslide to Franklin D . Roosevelt . During the presidential campaign of 1932 , Franklin D . Roosevelt opposed the veterans ' bonus demands . When they organized a second demonstration in May 1933 , he provided the marchers with a campsite in Virginia and provided them three meals a day . Administration officials , led by presidential confidant Louis Howe , tried to negotiate an end to the protest . Roosevelt arranged for his wife Eleanor to visit the site unaccompanied . She lunched with the veterans and listened to them perform songs . She reminisced about her memories of seeing troops off to World War I and welcoming them home . The most she could offer was a promise of positions in the newly created Civilian Conservation Corps ( CCC ) . One veteran commented : " Hoover sent the army , Roosevelt sent his wife " . In a press conference following her visit , the First Lady described her reception as courteous and praised the marchers , highlighting how comfortable she felt despite critics of the marchers who described them as Communists and criminals . Roosevelt later issued an executive order allowing the enrollment of 25 , 000 veterans in the CCC , exempting them from the normal requirement that applicants be unmarried and under the age of 25 . Congress , where Democrats held majorities in both houses , passed the Adjusted Compensation Payment Act in 1936 authorizing the immediate payment of the $ 2 billion in WWI bonuses over the President ' s veto . The House vote was 324 to 61 , and the Senate vote was 76 to 19 .