#10: Keeping Promises and Breaking Faith

We've got 1930s newsreel sound clips this week (Fancy!) which talk about the time the US Army attack US WWI veterans in Washington, DC on the order of the US president... true story. If you don't know about the Bonus Army in 1932, you need to hear it; not exactly the "support our troops" mentality of politicians today. Oh, and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier gets its permanent sarcophagus and epitaph 10 years after its initial dedication but the ceremony doesn't  go quites as planned.

This week’s Ghost of Arlington are:

1. Civilian James Parks (Section 15E, Grave 2)
2. Army Private First Class William Hushka (Section 18, Grave 2262)
3. Army Private First Class Eric Carlson  (Section 18, Grave 5217)

Also, a very special thanks to Mountain Up Cap Company for its continued help to spread the word about the podcast on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/MountainUpCapCompany Climb to Glory!

For more information about the podcast visit: 

·       The GoA website: https://www.ghostsofarlingtonpodcast.com    

·       Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ghostsofarlingtonpodcast

·       Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArlingtonGhosts

·       Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ghostsofarlington/

Transcript

Episode 10: Keeping Promises and Breaking Faith 

Welcome and thank you for joining me for Ghosts of Arlington, Episode 10: Keeping Promises and Breaking Faith <PLAY INTRO> I am going to try something a little different today. I found a lot of old newsreel clips that I am going to insert into the podcast, and I can’t wait to hear how it turns out. I won’t say to expect this as a regular feature on the show, but who knows? If it works out, I might try it again from time to time. Last week, we saw the birth of the most famous monument at Arlington National Cemetery, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, and we will continue to see it evolve over the coming decades as the Great War did not prove to be the War to End All Wars, unfortunately. But the inter-war period did give the cemetery time to continue to evolve and time for politicians to install the promised permanent Tomb of the Unknown marker… right after using the US Army to attack unarmed World War One veterans… true story! 

By the end of WWI, the Lee Mansion had fallen into disrepair. The house had been stripped of furniture and most rooms sat empty. Arlington’s gardener and disinterment expert from the Spanish-American war, DH Rhodes, had commandeered one room as an office, and the cemetery superintendent received guests in another. A third room downstairs was cluttered with battle flags and other unsorted mementos from the Civil War. That all changed with Frances Keyes, a Virginian and wife of New Hampshire Senator Henry Wilder Keyes was inspired by the recent restoration of George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon and began to lobby for a similar restoration of the Lee Manor to its pre-war appearance. In May 1924, Mrs. Keys found an ally in Michigan Representative Louis Cramton, whose father had been a Union soldier, introduced legislation to restore the house. 

Much like he continues to be today, 150 years after his death, when he had only been gone 50 years, Lee was a divisive figure. Fearing this would make Arlington a shrine to the Confederate General, Vermont Senator Porter Dale proposed turning the Lee home into a museum displaying the <QUOTE> trophies and emblems of the Union Army and Navy of the United States during the Civil War. <END QUOTE> That proposal died in committee. Another counter to Mrs. Keyes’s plan was to emphasize the heritage of the home as one of the first Greek Revival buildings in the United States and restore the interior to the style of the original owner, George Washington Parke Custis. 

In the end, Keyes and Cramton’s plan won out and the bill, which officially names the home on the hill at Arlington the Lee Mansion, authorized the secretary of war to <QUOTE> restore the home to the condition in which it existed immediately prior to the Civil War, and to procure, if possible, articles of furniture and equipment which were then in the mansion and used by the… Lee family <END QUOTE> President Calvin Coolidge signed the legislation in March 1925. It took another four years for the one hundred thousand dollars to be appropriated for the renovation.

A great deal of research went into the renovation project to make sure all the details were correctly captured. The wiring, heating system, and other guts of the house were modernized but everyone wanted to make sure the visible portions of the house looked like they did on the eve of the Civil War. The most helpful resource for this research was not an old blueprint or a detailed diary entry, but the memories of a man who had lived his whole life in and around Arlington. Back in episode 2, I said that James Parks dug the grave for the first burial at Arlington, private William Christman, and many other early graves in the cemetery. Parks had been born a slave at Arlington, he grew up there and continued working there long after the Civil War. He had an incredible memory of how the home looked 50 years before, and his memories, which in time were all backed up by evidence and research, identified which rooms were used for what inside the house by the Lees, and provided a layout for the slave quarters, outdoor summer kitchen, the smokehouse, the old vegetable garden, and a covered well.

Parks died in August 1929, just as renovations were getting underway, he was 86 years old. His last wish was to be buried at Arlington and his many friends at the War Department saw to it that he was. On a steamy August day, 60 friends gathered at a prominent plot near the gate to Ft. Myer. An Army chaplain read the burial service, soldiers fired off a three-rifle salute, and James Parks returned to this native soil in fine military style. A few months later, a commemorative tablet was placed over his grave by the American Legion, a photo of which can be seen on the show’s website: ghosts of Arlington dot com. Today this site is in Section 15E, Grave 2. I may do a show in the future dedicated to James Parks, he arguably did more than anyone except Montgomery Meigs to shape the initial foundation of Arlington National Cemetery, but for now, we will keep moving forward. 

From the time of the dedication of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in 1922, more people began visiting Arlington, both locals on day trips and tourists coming to Washington, DC. Many of these visitors found their way to the Memorial Amphitheater on the cemetery grounds. At this time, there were no tomb sentries to enforce decorum rules and by 1923, enterprising photographers had set up shop to irreverently pose visitors with the famous tomb, going so far as to encourage young ladies to sit on the sarcophagus for their portraits. Complaints about these activities and others, including boisterous conversations and casual picnicking in the area, soon poured into the War Department. Initially, the War Department said it would be impractical to post military sentries at the site. When the complaints continued, a civilian guard was hired who rousted the photographers from the cemetery, prevented tourists from sitting on the tomb, and prohibited picnicking. Veterans groups continued advocating for a military presence and in 1926, military sentries began monitoring the site during regular operation hours. In 1937, an around-the-clock sentry was established and is still in effect to this day. Images of tomb sentries at their posts during hurricanes and blizzards are moving. These young men and women are always given the option to take cover in extreme weather conditions but always choose to brave the elements. Assignment as a tomb sentry is one of the most revered in the US military and will absolutely be the focus of its own episode sometime in the future.

Last week I mentioned it took a decade from the time the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier was dedicated in 1922 until the final memorial and epitaph would be in place. In 1932, an oblong marble box more than 13 feet long and 11 feet tall was in place over the original sarcophagus and was ready to receive its final detailed carvings. Three classically inspired figures – representing Victory, Valor, and Peace were carved into the eastern end of the tomb facing Washington; the western edge facing the Memorial Amphitheater received the simple yet powerful epitaph: Here rests in honored glory an American Soldier known but to God. The tomb’s side panels were decorated with inverted laurel wreaths and Doric columns. The completed monument was opened to the public on April 9, 1932, with a formal dedication ceremony planned for Armistice Day in November. Just a few months before, in January 1932, the long-planned Arlington Memorial Bridge was finally opened connecting the renovated Lee Mansion with the newly completed Lincoln Memorial. 

While the Tomb and Lee Mansion renovation projects were being completed, the nation and the world were sliding deeper into the great depression. These veterans had been promised a bonus for their service in World War I, payable in 1945, but because of the depression, these bonuses were desperately needed, and the veterans were lobbying to make the funds payable immediately. Calling themselves the Bonus Expeditionary Force, their numbers swelled to 20,000 by July. Large gatherings like this in Washington were somewhat commonplace in the era – somewhat akin to gatherings at statehouses today. These men and their families milled around the National Mall, occupied vacant government buildings, and set up a large camp on the far bank of the Anacostia River. People came down from nearby towns to show their support for the veterans – they brought them food, sleeping bags, tents, and what little money they had to spare. People at the time didn’t have catchphrases like “support our troops” they looked for ways to go out and support them. Many of these veterans ate better than they did back home and many of their local area supporters from Washington, Virginia, and Maryland were shocked to see that while the US military remained segregated at this time, the Bonus Army was not. Black and white comrades camped together, ate together, and made their rounds around the capital with little regard for racial distinction. 

This shantytown, which became the biggest Hooverville in the country, was built from scrap lumber, chicken wire, wrecked cars, and whatever else could be scrounged from a nearby landfill included a library, a post office, a barbershop, an internally published newspaper, the BEF News, and streets named after states. The Bonus Army was formed around a cause its members deeply believed in and they were determined not to be bums. The camp rules include no alcohol, no weapons, no fighting, no panhandling, and absolutely no communists. 

On June 15th, the House of Representatives passed the bonus and the bill moved on to the Senate and at this point, several thousand veterans go to the Capitol building believing they are going to get their bonus and the Senate turns it down and its all over, so that is the end of the Bonus Army in the view of official Washington; everybody expects they’re all going to go home, but they won’t go home. The total numbers drop but the hardcore members of the group stay and there is no indication they are ever going to leave and there is a little panic that starts at the top of government There is no evidence to suggest the Bonus Army was anything but a spontaneous movement by out-of-work veterans looking for promised pay, some lawmakers feared the group had been organized by communists who were looking to spark unrest and revolution such as had been seen recently in Europe. Officials want this movement to end so they sent in the police. It starts off peacefully and everything seems okay, and then someone throws a brick and before you know it, two guys are shot and killed by the police. Now it is time to call in the Army.

On July 28, 1932, President Hoover told Secretary of War Patrick Hurley to gave new Army Chief of Staff General Douglass MacArthur (yes, that Douglass MacArthur) orders to evict the Bonus Army and MacArthur quickly began moving, vowing to <QUOTE> Break the back of the [Bonus Army] <END QUOTE> At MacArthur’s command, more than 200 cavalry troopers lead by Major George S. Patton (yes, that George S. Patton) saddled up at Ft Myer, rode through Arlington with their sabers out, and crossed the new Memorial Bridge into the Capital. These troopers were followed by five tanks (the only instance of tanks being used in offensive operations in North American that I can find) and more than 400 infantry soldiers with bayonets fixed and rifles loaded. MacArthur himself was at the head of this formation on horseback. After crossing the bridge into DC, the US Army plowed into the Bonus Army and curious bystanders on the National Mall, scattering all before them. Through tear gas and cries of Shame! Shame! MacArthur’s force drove thousands of men, women, and children up Pennsylvania Avenue and across the 11th Street Bridge back into Anacostia to the Bonus Army encampment.

Although he had strict instructions to stop at the 11th Street Bridge – MacArthur being MacArthur decided to ignore those orders – stormed the Bonus Army shantytown, gave everyone 20 minutes to get out, and burned it to the ground. Now his actions ignoring orders during the Korean War, moving closer to the Chinese border, and ultimately causing the Chinese to join the war make more sense. He had already gotten away with disregarding the orders of one president with ZERO consequences so what did the orders of another president mean? The Bonus Army was broken. Most left that night, though a few remained recovering from injuries caused by tear gas or soldiers. During the action, one woman, the wife of a veteran miscarried and a day or two later, a 12-week old infant died from tear gas inhalation. 

The two civilians killed earlier in the police action, were William Hushka, a 35-year-old from Chicago, and Eric Carlson, 38, from Oakland – both veterans of World War One. They were buried in Arlington National Cemetery, where their funerals were attended by family, hundreds of veterans, and the very soldiers called to eject them from the capital. Despite the deaths and MacArthur’s disregard for orders, Secretary of War Hurley declared the operation a success saying at a nighttime press conference in the still-smoldering ruins of the Bonus Army camp, <QUOTE> It was a great victory. Mac did a great job. He is the man of the hour <END QUOTE>

As word spread of the assault on the Bonus Army, public opinion turned decidedly against Hoover, Hurley, and MacArthur. All three were booed in cinemas across the country when newsreels showed what had happened – some of these same newsreels are where I got the audio in this episode from. It was no surprise when Hoover was soundly defeated later that year in an election landslide by Franklin D. Roosevelt. Three days after Hoover’s resounding defeat, thousands of dignitaries, soldiers, and veterans paraded through Washington and into Arlington for the dedication of the new Tomb of the Unknown monument. Hoover avoided the ceremony which was organized by the American Legion – a group that had vocally condemned the expulsion of the Bonus Army – and sent Secretary of War Hurley in his place. As you might expect, Hurley did not receive a warm welcome from the American Legionaries.

When Hurley arrived at the Tomb, he found 100 stone-faced veterans from the American Legion’s Victory Post of Washington, DC standing at attention, where they had just laid a wreath at the tomb. Refusing to yield their position to Hurley, they watched in silence as he laid a wreath at the tomb and retreated toward the Amphitheater. Just as he did, the commander of the Victory Post Drum Corps snapped an order to his men. “Right by squads!” he barked. The corps pivoted and, maintaining its columns, marched down through the cemetery to the playing of fife and drums, headed to the graves of William Hushka and Eric Carlson.

The spectators packing the amphitheater could still hear the drumbeats as Secretary Hurley rose to speak. “Again we stand at the sacred tomb…” he began, but before he got any further a few veterans scattered throughout the arena stood and walked out, climbing over the knees of those who remained seated. Hurley resumed speaking, and a few more men and women pointedly left, followed by others at intervals all synchronized to disrupt Hurley’s speech. This protest had been orchestrated by Raymond Burke, commander of the Victory Post Drum Corps and some 200 men and women left the amphitheater to follow the drum corps to lay wreaths for Hushka and Carlson that day, in Section 18, Graves 2262 and 5217

Four years later, Congress passed a $1.9 billion bill to make payouts to three and a half million veterans of the Great War fulfilling a promise that had been made years before. When FDR vetoed the bill, it had enough support in Congress to overturn the veto.

The attack on the Bonus Army is one of those historic events that isn’t talked about much these days – it was obviously a black eye for the Army and a low point for veteran relations. One good thing did come out of the Bonus Army fiasco, a national call to treat veterans better in the future and to give those fortunate enough to return from war what they have been promised. The Bonus Army is also mentioned as an impetus for the establishment of the Montgomery GI Bill in the aftermath of World War II. Speaking of World War II, another reason the Bonus Army has been mostly forgotten is that it not only occurred in the midst of a terrible economic depression, but in a few short years, another world war would begin, one that would eclipse the War to End All Wars in brutality and loss of life. Preparations for World War II would change Arlington in unimaginable ways and that is where we will pick up our story next week.