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

Headline writers had christened them "the Bonus Army," "the bonus marchers."

From Salon • Jun. 14, 2020

It may not have been true that the attack on the Bonus Army accounted for Roosevelt’s landslide victory over Hoover just over three months later, when he won 42 states to Hoover’s six.

From Los Angeles Times • Jun. 2, 2020

One of the most notable protest movements occurred toward the end of Hoover’s presidency and centered on the Bonus Expeditionary Force, or Bonus Army, in the spring of 1932.

From Textbooks • Dec. 30, 2014