Bonus Army

American  

noun

U.S. History.

1. a group of 12,000 World War I veterans who massed in Washington, D.C., the summer of 1932 to induce Congress to appropriate moneys for the payment of bonus certificates granted in 1924.

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Example Sentences

Nearly 20,000 unemployed veterans, the so-called Bonus Army, descended on Washington in protest.

From Washington Post • Nov. 11, 2022

The 43,000-member Bonus Army descended on Washington in 1932, in the depths of the Great Depression.

From Seattle Times • Apr. 1, 2022

It is of interest today to read a description of Hoover by Walter Lippmann, in a piece published in Harper's Magazine in 1930, a couple years before the Bonus Army came to Washington.

From Salon • Jun. 14, 2020

As the main camp of the Bonus Army in the swampy Anacostia Flats on the fringes of Washington swelled to 10,000 in mid-June, the Republican House passed a measure to pay the bonus.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 2, 2020

Combined with Hoover’s ill-timed response to the Bonus Army crisis, his political fate was sealed.

From Textbooks • Dec. 30, 2014