The Federal Reserve refused to pay veterans their bonuses.
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Coxey's Army marched to Washington DC in 1894 as a protest by unemployed workers. The march took place during the second year of a four-year economic depression in the United States.
Unemployed World War I veterans marched on DC in the summer of 1932, seeking early payment for service compensation.
"Stonewall" Jackson
The "Bonus Army" who demanded that they be paid a bonus for their service to compensate for the wages they would have been able to earn if they had been allowed to remain stateside and work instead of going off to fight in the war. In 1924, after several years of lobbying, congress finally awarded the WWI veterans "adjusted universal compensation"-a bonus-in the form of government bonds that would collect interest over two decades and be paid out no earlier than 1945. Unfortunately the Great Depression hit in in 1929 and the veterans needed the money NOW. Something around 17,000 veterans (plus many of them families which swelled the total to around 43,000) traveled to Washington, DC. and set up camps (named "Hoovervilles" in derision of the President). Eventually Hoover ordered the Army to evict them from DC. His handling of the Bonus Army had major political impact on Hoover and contributed to him loosing in a landslide to F.D.R. in the next election.
The Peninsula Campaign was fought from March to July 1862 by the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. Gen. George McClellan. McClellan's overcautious approach led to a retreat by his army to the James River and it was eventual recalled to the defense of Washington DC in August 1862.