Ora decided to do a little further investigation before he met up with Fred again. He went to visit another veteran, this one an official of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars, universally known as the VFW. Ora learned that almost all of Fred’s information was accurate. Congress had passed a law authorizing a bonus to veterans of the war. The law provided that all vets be given a bonus, the amount awarded depending upon their time of service during the war: the award was $1 per day for each day served between the dates April 5, 1917 and July 1, 1919, about $1.25 a day for those who served overseas during that period. The bill provided that the payouts be given in 1945, enough time to allow the U. S Treasury to accumulate the needed funds without the need for added taxes by most calculations.
The VFW man told Ora that the new thing about the bonus was that Congress had a new member, Wright Patman, Congressman from Texas who was demanding immediate payment of the bonus. He said that Patman had been in the artillery during the war and understood the desperate straits most vets were now in because of the hard times. The VFW man showed Ora a copy of a letter from Patman that had been widely circulated. It was a letter to his sister during the war and it showed his thinking about war and the needs of common people in the U.S. Ora quickly scanned the letter untill he came to the part about the artillery.
“What you would call a bullet is as big as a stovepipe and twice as long. It costs the government $1,250 to fire one of them.” The letter went on to note that soldiers fired the shells all day long and that a single firing was the equivalent cost of 10 new schoolhouses in their native Texas rural area.
Wright Patman returned home from the war and entered politics. Now he was a representative and the Chair of the powerful Banking Committee. Patman had introduced a bill for immediate payment of the 1924 bonus, said to be worth around $1,000 for most vets when it came due in 1945.
Ora was stunned by all Fred and the VFW man had told him. The amount of money they talked about, $1,000, was almost beyond belief for Ora. Why, having that much money would be like being the owner of the Eston Piano Company. Ora had a fitful night’s sleep as he rolled over the information he had learned.
Fred came the next day with more information about the Bonus March. Most of what he said was true, based on what Ora had learned from the VFW. Fred said that veterans all across the country were going to converge on Washinton, D. C. and demonstrate in front of the Congress so that they would vote in favor of the Patman bill. It seemed a simple matter to Fred; demonstrate your power with hordes of veterans, and the Congress will do your bidding.
Ora wasn’t convinced and he had a lot of questions.
“How would we get there? I don’t have money for gas, probably my old truck wouldn’t last that long anyway.”
Fred seemed to have most of the answers. Those that he didn’t know, provoked a shrug, “It’ll all work out,” he said.
Fred’s plan was that shared by thousands of other veterans across the country – they would ride the rails to Washington, camp at some installation close to Congress and march in front of the Capital and The White House, if necessary, and stay until Congress came up with their paycheck. It would be like being back in the Army for a while.
It seemed entirely too simple to Ora for it to succeed. He promised Fred that he would sleep on the idea and discuss it with Nellie. To Ora’s surprise, Nellie thought it was a good idea. She could manage their little farm while Ora was gone, and it would give him something to do instead of sitting on their porch day after day. With Nellie’s blessing, Ora told Fred he was going and the two made their plans to leave the following week, the third Monday in May, 1932.
The night before he was to leave, Ora had second thoughts but Nellie was supportive of the trip to Washington. It seemed to her that the veterans who were marching were doing a civic duty by urging the Congress to do something that would support the entire country, especially since the money had already been earmarked for the vets. Before Fred arrived the next morning, Ora and Nellie shared a private goodbye. Ora said he would return home as soon as he could and he hoped to be back before the month ended.
Ora fingered the money he was taking with him. It was the last of their savings from the bank, a little over $11. Nellie pressed $4 more into his hand even though he was reluctant to take it. As Ora had guessed, Fred had no money at all. The two each had a bedroll and a small mess kit but no other clothes besides clean underwear.
Fred and Ora left home that Monday and made their way to the train tracks on the west side of town. They knew an east-bound freight train would be leaving sometime in the morning and they wanted to be sure to find an empty boxcar without attracting attention. They were surprised when they crawled aboard a car to find two other men already hiding in the shadows. No one said a word as Fred closed the big door and they settled themselves in a corner, waiting for the telltale jerk announcing the beginning of their journey.
The first part of the ride east was long, slow, noisy and uncomfortable. The train made numerous short stops, but the men couldn’t determine their location most of the time and they were afraid to leave the car for fear of being left behind. They traveled all day long and through the night before their boxcar finally rolled onto a siding. They had traveled nearly 24 hours to reach Toledo, a port town on Lake Erie about 100 miles from Bluffton. Fred and Ora scrambled out of the boxcar. Before they had walked 50 feet, they saw a group of men sitting around a campfire a short distance from the train yard. “Let’s go see if we can find something to eat,” Fred said as he walked toward the group assembled around the campfire. Ora said nothing but fell in stride with Fred.
They soon learned that the men around the campfire were also headed to Washington. They were part of the Bonus Army, they said, and they were willing to share a bowl of their mulligan stew from vegetables that had been donated by the Toledo VFW. Fred and Ora quickly joined the circle. The men were waiting for the next freight headed east that was rumored for tomorrow morning. One of the men had a hand-lettered sign that he kept close at hand. Bonus Army Veterans, it said in bold black letters. He said that the sign had helped provide food for his journey since its beginning in Minnesota. He said he had been on his way for more than a week and he expected to be on the road for another week or two. The hard realization swept over Ora and Fred that their plan to return home within the month was not likely.
The dozen men around the circle spent the rest of the day talking and smoking. Someone had procured coffee from somewhere so several pots were boiled that substituted as dinner. No one complained. The talk turned to hardships of the Depression. Some of the men said that 1932 was the cruelest year yet of the Great Depression. They said that newspapers had been reporting on the terrible financial straits and that President Hoover seemed not to understand the pain most Americans felt.
The fact was that Hoover was a wealthy man, having earned his fortune by hard work and rapid progress as a mining engineer, but he seemed out of touch with the common man even though his parents had been poor. In one famous remark, Hoover said that in America, “Nobody is actually starving.” He couldn’t have been more wrong; two cities, New York and San Franciso, reported that 110 of their citizens had been found dead that month with the cause being malnutrition. Most were children.
Hoover opposed the Wright Patman bill that demanded immediate payment to the veterans instead of making them wait until 1945. Hoover made it known that if Congress passed the bill he would veto it. Veterans all across the country began singling out the President and his Treaury Secretary Andrew Mellon for abuse especially after Mellon was implicated in shady financial transactions that abetted his personal fortune.
A favorite refrain summed up widespread public opinion:
“Mellon pulled the whistle.
Hoover rang the bell,
Wall Street gave the signal,
And the country went to hell.”
The group had grown; instead of the14 assembled yesterday, another nine had appeared out of nowhere. The car now had 23 men. The car they settled in had been used for transporting beef to market. It stank, but at least it was clean. The advantage of this car was that the men could see each other and the countryside with the sunlight that filtered in through the slatted walls. Ora looked about at the odd collection of men. The faces that looked back at him sat atop thin, gaunt bodies; most got by on two meals a day; most were hungry on this day.
The thin bodies were covered in a variety of clothing. Most, like Fred, had managed to put together old and worn pieces of their military uniforms so they could be readily identified as veterans. Ora felt a little conspicuous with his carefully pressed army uniform that he had never worn since his days in the service. Some of the former soldiers wore their medals and a few had other military insignia and service ribbons that they proudly displayed. Three of the veterans had other marks of their service; two walked with the aid of a cane and one had a mangled arm that hung uselessly at his side. These three had to be helped aboard the boxcar
One of the new men from Toledo was elected Captain of the group when it was revealed that he had worked for a railroad and knew the practices of conductors and railroad security. A group of three men were assigned as quartermasters - their job was to solicit food for the group by whatever means was chosen. Two other men were chosen as cooks after they reported they had cooked in the army.
The discussion on procurement of food resulted in the agreement that the men should pool their money for whatever purchases were needed and that it should be controlled by a man chosen as Treasurer. This discussion about procurement prompted a roll call among the men to determine how much cash was available for emergency food purchases. When the assessment of their available cash was taken, Ora was astonished to learn that most of the men had no money at all. He knew Fred was broke, but he was struck by that fact that most of the other men were in no better shape. Ora’s $11 (he had temporized in his report that the other $4 in his pocket was really Nellie’s money and not his to give away.) was the largest bankroll of the group – several men had two or three dollars and the next largest bankroll after Ora’s was a man with $7. Ora was elected Treasurer to manage their combined bankroll of $36, and Fred was given the task of planning entertainment in camp.
The man voted captain decided to circulate among the railroad workers to find when the next east-bound train would depart. When he returned he called another meeting of the men to announce that they would be leaving that afternoon. The trip east began again. Ora and Fred spent their fifth day on the road just 100 miles from where they had begun.
The train trip east continued for the next two weeks. Most times the men traveled from town to town, established a camp and then met with the local VFW, Red Cross, American Legion or other civic group willing and able to help supply food for veterans who had nothing. As the Treaurer for the group, Ora purchased food on those few occasions when donated food was not available. Generally, he purchased vegetables and only enough meat to flavor a stew. In addition to stew, the men had bread and coffee for dinner and oatmeal for breakfast. No one complained since many had fared on even less food before the trip began.
Fred arranged for evening programs when the men arrived early enough to plan an event. If there weren’t enough time or daylight to organize a show or a baseball game, Fred planned another activity that everyone could join. One resource Fred discovered was the two men he found who were accomplished singers. After a tune or two of their own, the two would lead the group in singing patriotic songs or marches that they had learned in the army. The Bonus Army men kept busy in this fashion had little time or energy for complaining.
Ora learned a lot about the Bonus Army men during the long trip east. One of the most striking things he learned was how he lucky he and Fred were compared to most of the men they traveled with. All were unemployed and most hadn’t worked in two years or more. Many had lost their homes, most were hungry, and many had ailments of one sort or another either related to injuries from their war service or from the severity of a life with inadequate food and shelter. Ora was reluctant to talk about his home life with Nellie because of his relative wealth compared to most of the others. Countless times during the long trip in the boxcars, Ora thanked his lucky stars that he lived in a small community surrounded by rich farmlands where food was relatively abundant.
At each stop, the little Bonus Army that Ora and Fred had joined added a few more men. By the time their group was closing in on Washington, D. C. they had grown from 23 to 147 veterans, each one jobless, each hoping for a payday from the United States Congress, each expecting that his share of the money would help reset his path to financial recovery. It was a dream, but one that was shared by thousands of veterans converging on the nation’s capital.
The train arrived at Union Station in the middle of a bright sunny afternoon. The Bonus Army men stumbled from the cars as soon as the train came to a stop. By now, the group had a practiced routine of gathering alongside the tracks and coming to order with the captain shouting orders for their next move. This time, their assembly was interrupted by the presence of another tight knot of men at the edge of the tracks. The captain of the Ora’s group, now called the Ohio group, walked toward the knot of men. At the center of the group was a slender man of medium height who seemed to have the respect of those around him. He was dressed in a clean khaki uniform with tall black boots and a nametag over his left breast pocket. As Ora and Fred joined the group, he was talking earnestly, and the men around him were nodding gravely.
Walter Waters was a jobless veteran like thousands of others converging on Washington. He was married, hadn’t had a job for two years and believed that the nation owed its veterans a bonus and that the bonus should be paid now to help lift the nation from the depression. The difference between Waters and the thousands of other vets who believed similarly, was that Waters had a gift for gab, and he found a ready ear among the newspapers in his native Oregon. Over the last two years he had been speaking publicly about the bonus with the result that he developed a following of men and women who helped organize rallies where he spoke dozens of times to the acclaim of various organizations and news agencies. The result of his long effort had been the march on Washington. He personally led a group of veterans from Oregon and the group rode boxcars just as Ora and thousands of others.
Waters had been a sergeant in the army and had no particular qualifications to lead a march of 10 men, let alone the 20,000 believed either enroute or already in the capital. Yet the fact was that Waters, more than anyone else, had galvanized veterans from across the nation to bring pressure on Congress by means of a physical presence in the capital. Waters had become an accomplished public speaker and he had led one of the first veterans groups across the nation with much fanfare. When he arrived in Washington, he met with Washington’s sympathetic Chief of Police, Pelham Glassford. Glassford helped Waters and his group set up the first of many camps around Washington as they began planning their activities for lobbying the Congress.
Ora and Fred and the rest of the predominantly Ohio veterans were herded from the station to a group of open-back trucks waiting for them. As soon as they were aboard, the trucks left the station and headed south, traveling past the Capitol building and the center of Washington. The vets in the parade of trucks were all wide-eyed with their first glimpse of the gleaming white government buildings that struck them as outrageously ornate, large and elegant beyond their previous experience. None of the vets riding in the open trucks with the noise and the sun and wind, could imagine going to work inside one of the attractive buildings behind the broad facades to earn a regular, dependable wage that could support a family.
The trucks took the vets to the largest of the Bonus Army camps that had sprung up in Washington. The camp was known as The Anacostia Camp as it was on the south side of the Anacostia River. The site had been chosen by Glassford since it was an unoccupied stretch of land that no one cared about as it was a floodplain, readily susceptible to regular flooding, and adjacent to a city dump. The vets thought it was perfect.
One of the reasons the vets liked the spot was because of the nearby dump. None of the vets had the means to establish any sort of living quarters, not even a tent. The dump provided the materials for their shelter. The first vets to arrive at the Anacostia site raided the dump and took whatever materials they could find to build a shelter of one sort or another. What they found were discards of all description. The vets were creative if nothing else and a village of sorts was soon erected.
Shacks soon arose from the floodplain made from all manner of materials. The first arrivals found discarded lumber and odd pieces of plywood and tin. Soon, those ‘conventional’ materials were all taken forcing the use of more creative housing materials such as cardboard, flattened metal nailed onto a few boards, assorted bricks and stone piled high and covered with shingles or whatever else was available. A few vets found old car bodies in the dump and dragged those to the camp to serve as living quarters. The materials and shapes used as living quarters were so varied that the only things that seemed out of place at The Anacostia Camp were conventional tents and lumber.
The Chief of Police of Washington, D. C., Pelham Glassford, was sympathetic to the plight of the Bonus Army veterans. He understood the potential for civil unrest and possible rioting with so many men in town who had no money, nothing to occupy their time and no means to support themselves. Glassford decided that whatever could be done to ease the plight of the vets would ultimately be in the best interests of both the city and the nation. Unfourtunately, Glassford’s bosses, the Board of Comisonners for the city, didn’t share his view nor did President Hoover, who was keenly aware of the presence of the Bonus Army. The result was that Glassford, on his own initiative, did everything he could to help the vets and make their accomodations as comfortable as possible despite the lack of support from those leaders who controlled the purse strings who chose not to help. The consequence was that Glassford dipped into his own pockets to provide help and requisitioned supplies for the vets from Federal depots without authority.
Glassford and Waters worked together to create an orderly camp that operated much like a military camp. Glassford obtained a large tent that served as kitchen and mess hall. He requisitioned camp kitchen tools from the army and solicited food donations from the Red Cross and other city agencies. When those sources were exhausted, Glassford bought food from his own pocket. He also provided lumber so the men could erect a large stage that fronted an area that became the parade grounds for the camp. Waters used the stage to address the men and he demanded that they assemble on the parade grounds in orderly groups following an organization that was established based on their origin. Fred and Ora mustered as a part of the Ohio group and were told to establish a campsite with the rest of the Ohio men.
Ora and Fred spent their first days at The Anacostia Camp searching for materials for a shelter. The weather had been pleasant since they arrived and their bedrolls furnished their only shelter for the first week. Their search of the dump was fruitless; most of the materials from the dump that could be used had already been taken. They decided to expand their search to another part of the city. After a hike of less than a half mile, they came upon a city park and a city work crew that were trimming trees. Ora watched the men cutting limbs from a tree and he noticed how some of the long and straight poles were being thrown out just as were the smaller tree branches. He turned to Fred. “I think we just found our shelter,” he said.
They watched the work crew for several minutes before they approached the man who seemed to be the foreman of the group. The outgoing Fred struck up a conversation and the three were soon laughing as if they were old friends. By the end of 10 minutes, Ora and Fred had arranged to have the crew deliver a truckload of the straightest and longest branches and trees to the camp at the end of their work shift. Ora and Fred returned to the camp. Ora went to find Walter Waters to explain his plan while Fred was commissioned to find a supply of twine that could be used to lash the poles together.
The poles arrived that evening as planned and Fred showed up at their campsite with a large bundle of twine. Ora decided that it was better not to ask where and how the twine had been obtained. The two began work immediately as several other vets gathered to watch. By the time it was dark, Ora and Fred and two other men who offered help had the major part of a small building standing upright with the corner poles securely buried in the mucky soil. They had lashed the poles together to form a small building that was large enough for two bedrolls, a small bench, and a space in the corner large enough for one man to stand upright while getting dressed.
There was no floor, a single opening for a window, no door, and a shed roof made from slender poles that wouldn’t discourage even the smallest rain from soaking everything within. Yet Ora and Fred were proud of their handiwork as they rolled out their beds in their new home. Word spread around camp and by noon of the following day, several dozen men had come by to inspect their work and offer opinions about obtaining a door, window, and covering for the roof. By the end of the next day pieces of cardboard, a scrap of fabric and several pieces of tin were delivered to Ora’s door by other Bonus Army men, completing one more shanty in a camp of a few thousand.
Waters tried to keep records of the Bonus Army marchers, but in the end it was impossible as men came and left without fanfare, some discouraged and giving up after a few days for a long trip home. The main focus of the veterans was to lobby for passage of the Wright Patman bill that would provide immediate payment of the bonus. Congress was in session during that summer and debate on the bill was scheduled. Hoover had made it clear that he was opposed to the bill and that if it were passed he would veto it. His threat was not enough to discourage Waters. He told newsmen that the vets were planning to remain in Washington until the bill was passed no matter how long it took.
During the second week of their visit, Ora was summoned to the parade grounds to serve as a representative for the Ohio regiment. He arrived to find Waters and Glassford at the front of a group of 40 or 50 vets, each of whom represented a section of the camp. Glassford was easy to spot; he had ridden his police motorcycle into the camp, and he was resplendent in his dark blue police uniform. He stood directly in front of the group, ignoring a small water puddle that lapped at his shiny black boots.
Waters asked for silence then made quick headcount before starting the meeting. He explained that the Patman bill was coming to a vote in the House on the following day and he wanted the entire Bonus Army to demonstrate in front of the Capitol. Glassford was alarmed at the idea and he lost no time in saying so. It would be the first time the entire Bonus Army was assembled in one place and he was concerned that too many men urged on by the presence of newsmen and cameras might make an explosive situation, especially if the men were hungry and tired and had no place to rest or the means to escape Washington’s hot, muggy weather.
Waters was adamant that the Bonus Army should march to the Capitol no matter the weather and no matter the food supply situation. Glassford warned that his police would be forced to protect the city and government property and would tolerate no unruly behavior. He said he thought the whole demonstration was too riskly, especially since Waters couldn’t say how many men would join the march. Waters thought that there were 28,000 marchers in town, but he couldn’t be sure and he couldn’t guarantee that all would be well-behaved. Waters asked for comments from the men assembled at the parade ground. There was silence as each man looked about. Ora took a deep breath, raised his hand, and stepped forward to speak. The men around him provided space and he found himself uncomfortably at the front, facing Waters and Glassford.
Ora’s voice was loud and firm. “I traveled a long way to get here just like the 100 or more other men in our group. We came without money, without food and without shelter and it was a hard trip. But we came to let the Congress know how we feel about getting our Bonus. Now if I go home without having a chance to show the Congress why I’m here, why shame on me. I know the other Ohio men feel the same way: we want to march, we want to tell Congress to pass this bill.” Ora stepped backward. He suddenly felt exhausted after his unwanted role as spokesman. As he sought the comfort of anonymity, he heard men all around him saying, “That’s right.” “You got that right.” Suddenly a rhythmic sound of clapping began. Waters looked at Glassford as the sound increased in volume as all the men joined in.
Waters waited until the clapping ceased. He turned to Glassford. “I guess you heard our answer. We’re going to march tomorrow.”
The next morning at precisely 8:00AM the three open-backed trucks showed up at the camp and the men from the meeting began to climb in. Except Ora. Waters invited Ora to ride to the Capitol with the camp leaders but Ora declined, saying that he wanted to walk with the men.
The remainder of the men assembled at the parade grounds at 8:30 AM for the march to the Capitol. Each unit marched as a group, each led by a man carrying an American flag. Most of the groups began singing as they crossed the bridge over the Anacostia River. The first to cross was the New York veterans, and they were met by photographers and newsmen from the Washington newspapers, as well as other photographers from several magazines. The Bonus Army was getting exactly the publicity they wanted.
The hour-long march to the capital took the vets past both The Navy Yard and past a U. S. Marine Corp barracks. Each of the military facilities flew an American flag at their entrance and as the vets passed by, each of the marchers saluted in a silent display of patriotism. It was easy to tell the men were solid patriots. Most wore some fragment of a military uniform and most tried to march in ranks as they slowly moved toward the capital.
The vets were also awed by the Capitol and each marching unit fell silent as they approached the low hill. An oval-shaped paved road circumscribed the Capitol. The marchers began their slow walk around the building. Many of the men had brought signs with them that they held aloft as they marched. Around and around the long oval road they marched with little to sustain them except the hope that Congress would pass a law that would put food in their bellies and return a measure of dignity to their lives. At the end of the day, they trudged back to the camp not knowing if Congress had heard their message.
News soon came that the House of Representatives voted and the Bonus Bill passed! The vets spent long hours at the camp congratulating themselves on their effort and the good news. A few of the wiser ones counseled restraint and indicated that the Senate had yet to pass the bill and that if the bill were to become law, the Senate had to have enough votes to override an expected Presidential veto.
The enthusiasm at the camp reached a new high with the news that the House had passed the Bonus Bill. That enthusiasm began to dwindle with each passing day as the vets waited for news of the Senate’s action on the Bill. Ora was becoming especially anxious. He missed Nellie and the boredom of sitting around the camp coupled with the hardship of everyday life at the camp were beginning to grate on him. He and Fred had lengthy discussions about returning home to Bluffton despite the general agreement among most of the vets that they needed to remain until Congress passed the bill.
Ora wondered how the vets at the Anacostia Camp and at other camps around Washington could be so patient to wait week after week living on the edge of starvation. It was true that some of the men had their families with them. Their wives and children shared the meager food, lack of sanitation, heat, rain and cool nights with little more than a roof over their heads. After talking with scores of men, Ora finally understood; most of the vets had nowhere else to go. They had no job and in consequence of having no income, most had lost their homes. For them, Washington was as good a place as any other to endure the pain of the Great Depression.
There were some people in Washington who wished the Bonus Army would leave. One was President Hoover. He had announced numerous times that he was opposed to the Bonus and that he would veto the Bill if it came before him. He didn’t like the constant reminder of having the veterans underfoot, especially since he was afraid that they might mob any function he attended and threaten his safety. The vets were also a drag on his upcoming campaign. He expected that the ever-present veterans and their signs demanding help would spoil any publicity he might strive for in Washington.
Another small group wishing the Bonus Army would depart Washington were the Commissioners for the city. These men were the highest-level administrators of the city and they supervised all the city department heads including the Chief of Police, Pelham Glassford. Glassford had succeeded thus far in keeping the peace with the Bonus Army by cooperating and assisting them within the limits of his authority. His bosses, the Commisioners, had repeatedly suggested that he take a hard line with the Bonus Army and they would have been only too happy to see the group depart.
Just as Ora was at the end of his patience with the political process the news came down from Waters – the Senate was preparing to vote on the Bonus Bill. The word spread through the camp like wildfire and the vets hurriedly assembled in front of the Capitol without urging from Glassford. By dusk, Ora, Fred, and 10,000 other vets were shuffling their feet on the Capitol grounds awaiting word of the vote. Suddenly silence swept over the assembled men. Ora could just make out the outline of the slender Walter Waters standing at the top of the stairs leading into the Capital. Ora was too far back in the crowd to make out Waters precise words but the message was unmistakable. The vets had lost. The Senate voted against the Bonus Bill 62 to 18. The vets stood in stunned silence, uncertain what to do next. Waters gave the answer “Sing America and go back to your billets,” he ordered. The men silently started home.
The result of the Senate vote was enough for Ora; he was ready to go home. He and Fred talked about it at length and Fred reluctantly agreed. The two men began preparing to leave but not quite soon enough. The District Commisioners had enough of the ragged Bonus Army and their living in abandoned buildings in the city. When Walter Waters announced that the Bonus Army was going to stay regardless of the Senate vote, the Commisioners ordered Glassford to clear the veterans from Washington’s central city, beginning with those living in several of Washington’s decrepit old buildings.
Glassford reluctantly ordered his officers to begin the eviction. The police assembled and began marching toward the downtown area. In an ironic twist of fate, a crowd of the Bonus Army men gathered to watch the marching officers and cheered as they passed by in a patriotic gesture of goodwill toward the marching police officers. The cheers turned to gasps as the police entered one of the buildings that had no front wall and was open to view by all. The officers began ordering people to leave their makeshift living quarters immediately. Their demands were punctuated with the use of nightsticks and drawn pistols.
Men, women and children began running in all directions at the sight of the drawn weapons. Suddenly a melee broke out and the officers were pelted by bricks. Shots rang out as the officers tried to protect themselves and two of the Bonus Army men fell, mortally wounded.
“Stop that shooting!”
It was Glassford. He ran to the sound of the firing and took command by climbing atop a pile of bricks. “Come on boys, let’s call an armistice for lunch,” he yelled. The resulting cheers and laughter defused the tense situation. The police backed away and allowed the veterans time to collect their belongings before leaving what had been their temporary homes. The eviction then proceeded in a more orderly fashion.
The news of the eviction and the shootings flew around Washington and simultaneously landed in Federal and city offices. The District Commissioners met and in a hurried consultation decided to request Federal troops to reinforce the police force. At nearly the same time, the Attorney General, acting with the consent of the President, decided that Federal troops should clear all the Bonus Army encampments, not just those in the downtown area. The order was sent to the Army Chief of Staff, Douglas MacArthur.
Against the advice of his aide, Dwight Eisenhower, the publicity-seeking MacArthur decided to personally command the troops. Eisenhower later recalled, “I told that dumb SOB not to go downtown, that it was no place for the Chief of Staff to command.” Since newsmen and photographers would no doubt be present, MacArthur first stopped to change into his dress uniform and he ordered Eisenhower to do the same. He then signed orders for troops to assemble near the Capitol. The troops he ordered included 600 men from the infantry, a unit of cavalry and an armored group. The armored unit consisted of a group of six heavy French tanks commanded by another ambitious officer, George S Patton.
It was late afternoon before the assembled horses, tanks, and troops began their journey to those downtown buildings inhabited by the Bonus Army. News of the troop movements flew faster than the moving army that was marching slowly behind trucks and horses; their presence announced by the rhythmic clatter of horseshoes on pavement echoing between tall buildings. Workers from government office buildings spilled out into the streets at the sound of the army’s marchers. When it became clear what was in store, American troops attacking American veterans, the office workers shouted, “Shame, Shame” at the stone-faced officers.
When the army reached the first of the decrepit buildings inhabited by the Bonus Army veterans, most ran for their lives. A few hold-outs stood firm and began pelting the troops with bricks. It was a vain attempt to show their anger as the hold-outs were quickly sent packing by teargas canisters, bayonets and swinging sabre blades. The army made short work of routing the veterans from their temporary living quarters.
It was dark when MacArthur decided the downtown work was finished and that the troops should proceed for the large Bonus Army camp on the south side of the Anacostia River. Glassford learned of MacArthur’s plans and raced his motorcycle toward the camp to warn the vets. Waters was not in camp. Glassford began riding his motorcycle through camp warning all who would listen.
President Hoover had a change of heart. After learning details of the troop action in town and the deaths of citizens, he sent an urgent dispatch to MacArthur ordering him not to cross the Anacostia River Bridge. MacArthur read the dispatch but decided to ignore the order and proceeded to cross the bridge. Before the infantry moved forward, he ordered that bayonets be fixed, tear gas canisters prepared, and cavalry swords held at the ready. The army moved forward and entered the camp, failing to salute the American flag hoisted at its entrance. It was the first time one American army had attacked another since the Civil War, one army equipped with the latest weapons and the other with sticks and stones.
A few veterans, warned of the oncoming troops, stood in the shadows armed with stones. As the troops advanced they let loose with their missiles and then disappeared into the darkness. The troops responded by aiming teargas canisters in the general direction of the incoming stones.
Ora and Fred were sound asleep in their bedrolls. Ora thought he was dreaming of the trenches in World War I when he heard the sounds of war. He roused himself from sleep when he heard neighbors shouting urgently, “Let’s go! “Let’s go!”
Suddenly, the beam of a powerful searchlight played across the front of their tiny shack, illuminating it as never before. The light awoke Fred.
“What’s happening,” he muttered.
“I don’t know,” Ora said as he scrambled from bed and stuck his head past the dirty burlap drape that served as their front door. He saw the search light and the reflected light of flames that seemed to be coming from the front of the camp. Scores of men were running down the road that fronted their shack.
“Hey, what’s happening,” Ora shouted at one of the runners.
“You’d better get going. The army has attacked,” the man shouted breathlessly as he continued his fevered pace down the road.
Ora turned to Fred.
“Did you hear that?”
Fred answered by bolting out of bed and gathering his few possessions in a single wad and stuffing the whole into the bed roll. Ora followed suit and within three minutes the two men were out the door of the little shack that had been their home for the past several weeks, each shouldering all they owned.
Once outside, the noise of the attack made it obvious the warning was correct. The sound from the front of the camp made it clear that the camp was on fire; the tarpaper, cardboard and wooden shacks were burning like a bonfire at a 4th of July picnic. The light from the fires illuminated the entire camp and Ora and Fred saw people running in all directions. It was clear from the pandemonium that the army was serious about what they were doing.
Fred started down the road, away from the entrance to the camp and the sound of the lumbering tanks that had now made it onto the parade grounds.
“Wait a minute,” Ora said. “Let’s get to the back of the camp.”
Ora pointed past their shack to the dark outlines of other shacks that sat along the rearmost road of the camp. Fred hesitated and then followed as Ora led the way through the dark toward the back of the camp. The pair reached the last row of shacks and then turned left, toward the end of the camp and toward the next further bridge over the river. They walked silently as the sounds of the fires and shouts and the screams of frightened children receded in the distance. The bridge over the river was barely discernible in the dark. Ora and Fred thought it safe to cross the river into the city since there seemed to be no one else around.
They were wrong. As they entered the roadway leading to the bridge a lone figure emerged from the dark.
“You boys had the same idea as me,” the man said. Although it was too dark to see clearly, the sound of his voice demonstrated that he was African-American.
He fell in step with Ora and Fred. Ora cast a sideways glance at the man but his gaze revealed nothing to single out the man as being any different from the any of the other veterans in the camp. Black veterans were common throughout the camp. In a remarkable demonstration of racial equality, Blacks and Whites lived side-by-side throughout the camp, shared the same meals and the same hardships, and practically no one noticed even though the country continued to practice racial segregation.
Ora turned to the man as they walked. “Could you see what was happening? We were camped in the back and so we didn’t see or hear much before we decided to run.”
“Apparently, we made things too hot for the President. He called out the troops on us. I couldn’t believe it myself even though the policeman Glassford tole’ us they was acomin’. I waited to see what would happen. When the first troops on horseback drawed their swords and the first soldiers commenced to burn the mess tent, I decided it was time to git. Before I left I could see the soldiers with bayonets and drawn swords advancing on the camp. They looked like they meant business.”
The revelations from the Black man further stunned Ora. He looked at Fred and decided that he was equally shocked at the treatment the Bonus Army had received at the hands of the army. At the Washington end of the bridge, the men stopped to look back at the camp. All they could see were the fires. The makeshift shacks in the front row had all burned and the fire had jumped the first road and was racing along the second tier of shacks.
“I bet our shack is burning by now. “ Fred said as the three of them stared at the flames.
The black man looked hard at Ora and Fred. “So what are you fellas planning to do now?”
Ora looked at Fred as he answered for both. “We’re heading home. Back to Indiana. I think we’ve done our part, just like we did in the War, and now it’s time to go home.”
