Federal Triangle and The Bonus Army
In June 1932, thousands of homeless World War I veterans, their families, and their supporters occupied the recently-condemned assemblage of buildings at the Federal Triangle site as part of the Bonus March on the capital to win better veterans' benefits.
On July 28, 1932, President Hoover ordered General Douglas MacArthur to remove the "Bonus Army" from the site. At 4:45 p.m., MacArthur led 1,200 infantry, 1,200 cavalry, and six battle tanks (commanded by Major George S. Patton) to Federal Triangle to remove the Bonus Army. More than 20,000 civil service workers (leaving their offices for the day) watched as the U.S. Army attacked its own veterans. Patton personally led a cavalry charge (with sabers drawn) into the mass of homeless people, and several hundred rounds of vomit gas were launched at the marchers. A Bonus marcher was killed on the site of the Apex Building. The Federal Triangle site was cleared and these members of the Bonus Army marched to Anacostia—where, at 10:14 p.m., MacArthur led a second attack on the 43,000 protesters and burned their camp to the ground.
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