Bonus Army

Bonus Army, gathering of probably 10,000 to 25,000 World War I veterans (estimates vary widely) who, with their wives and children, converged on Washington, D.C., in 1932, demanding immediate bonus payment for wartime services to alleviate the economic hardship of the Great Depression. Adjusted Compensation certificates, or bonuses, had been approved by Congress in 1924 but were not scheduled for full payment until 1945. In an effort to force early lump-sum payment of these urgently...