The Bonus March
Dressed in full military uniform including jodhpurs, Sam Browne belt, and shiny cavalry boots with spurs, the United States Army's Chief of Staff arrived in the middle of the street, to the disgust of Major Eisenhower, who felt MacArthur should have stayed in his office.
Soldiers from the 12th Infantry and 3rd Cavalry regiments pushed the BEF towards Anacostia Flats. As the soldiers neared the Anacostia River, Secretary of War Hurley sent a message from President Hoover ordering the troops to halt at the foot of the Anacostia River Bridge. MacArthur ignored the order. In Eisenhower's words, "(MacArthur) said he was too busy and did not want either himself or his staff bothered by people coming down and pretending to bring orders." Hurling tear gas grenades, the troops stormed across the bridge and put the BEF's shanty town to the torch. MacArthur told the press, "That mob down there was a bad-looking mob. It was animated by the essence of revolution." Clearly, the chief of staff had over reacted. Even one of MacArthur's biographers, D. Clayton James, wrote that MacArthur "acted with overzealous determination and reckless impulsiveness."
And so, with black smoke wafting over the Capitol building, a depression weary nation watched American war veterans driven from the capital by soldiers, who were once their comrades in arms. President Hoover, already blamed for the depression, now became the most hated man in America. Before year's end Hoover lost the the presidency and Glassford lost his job. Yet, MacArthur's insubordination went unpunished and two decades later he repeated it in Korea -- with a different result for the general.
Sources: Eisenhower, Volume I, Stephen Ambrose; The Bonus March: An Episode of the Great Depression, Roger Daniels; The Years of MacArthur, Volume I: 1880-1941, D. Clayton James; The President and Protest: Hoover, Conspiracy, and the Bonus Riot, Donald J. Lisio; B.E.F. The Whole Story of the Bonus Army, W.W. Waters as told to William C. White; "The Army Evicts the Bonus Marchers", Lt. Col. John W. Price, Military Review May 1971; "Bonus March," John Weaver, American Heritage June 1963 Volume XIV, Number 4.
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