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After the Great War
From 1919 to 1939 the Second Cavalry performed peace time duties as a school training Regiment at the Cavalry School, Ft. Riley, under the guidance of such men as General Patton, Truscott, Keyes, Mattox, and a host of others.
Here they experimented on the first armored cars, and in 1936 as more money was received for maneuver purposes they participated in the first Armored and cavalry maneuver which was held at Ft. Riley, Kansas.
On May 9, 1936, the Second Cavalry celebrated its centennial — 100 years of devoted service — and some of the men who took part were named S.W. Benkosky; E.C. George; D. Boone; C. Watson; M.F. Caldwell; W.E. Wells; Cook; C.A. Hurt; F.W. Murray and M.G. Winn.
In 1938 two Armored Regiments, the 1st and 13th, joined the Second Cavalry for maneuvers, and with the addition of Artillery and light planes it became an exercise to gain coordination in the use of combined arms.
The invasion of Poland by the German Panzers in 1939 gave increased impetus to the work on American mechanization and led to the first extensive maneuver in 1940 when the Second Cavalry and small Regular Army forces were joined by the 35th and 36th National Guard Divisions for exercises in Northern Minnesota.
By 1941 the Regiment was participating in large scale maneuvers in Louisiana, and served a stretch at Tuscon, Arizona in January 1942 on border duty. Since the emphasis was now on Armor, the Regiment, still a horse outfit, returned to Camp Funston, Ft. Riley, Kansas. Here on 15 May 1942 it was deactivated to form the 2nd Armored Regiment of the 9th Armored Division, the outfit that was to demonstrate its Cavalry training and alertness in the seizure of the Remagen bridge in March 1945.
Patton and the Bonus March of 1932
Did you know that George S. Patton once battled fellow World War I veterans in the streets of Washington D.C.? The Great Depression of the 1930s spread economic misery, despair, and heartbreak across America. By 1932, nearly one-third of working Americans were unemployed and desperate for relief. Many veterans of World War I felt that the federal government owed them a particular debt for their sacrifice and service during the war. They began to organize and demand that Congress approve an early payment of pension funds that was not due until 1945.
Bonus veterans from Jeannette, Pennsylvania, 1932.
In the summer of 1932, about 20,000 unemployed veterans and their families traveled to Washington D.C. from across the United States to lobby Congress. Some of these "Bonus Marchers" camped out in shacks and tents, which they mockingly called "Hoovervilles" after President Herbert Hoover. Others occupied abandoned and partially dismantled buildings near the Capitol.
Bonus Marchers' camp in Washington, D.C., 1932.
Although the marchers were not disorderly or unruly, the Hoover administration and local officials feared this group of around 5,000 might turn into a mob. The tense situation exploded on July 28, 1932, when a marcher was killed during a scuffle with police, and federal troops were called in to restore order.
Our Cavalry Sent To Evict The Bonus Army
One of the first federal officers to arrive in Washington D.C. was Major George S. Patton. His cavalry troops met up with infantry at the Ellipse, near the White House. Patton and the federal troops, equipped with gas masks, bayonets and sabers, marched up Pennsylvania Avenue, firing gas grenades and charging and subduing the angry crowd. Later that night, Patton and the federal troops cleared out the marchers' camp in Anacostia, with some tents and shacks catching fire in the process. By the following morning, most marchers had left Washington D.C., but the incident left bitter memories and affected Patton deeply. He called it the "most distasteful form of service" and later wrote several papers on how federal troops could restore order quickly with the least possible bloodshed.
Soldiers evicting WWI veterans from their camps, Washington, D.C.,1932.
The Bonus Army Village Burns With U.S. Capitol Dome In Background
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