The Departure of Jan van Swieten from Atjeh (April 1874) was the embarkation and departure of opperbevelhebber Jan van Swieten from Atjeh on 26 April 1874 — three days after his afscheidsrede of 23 April declaring the war “geëindigd” — aboard the stoomschip Prins Alexander der Nederlanden, saluted by a “saluut uit de zware vuurmonden der oorlogschepen,” and leaving kolonel Pel to inherit a “zeer gebrekkige stelling” (very defective position) and the conduct of a war that was, in truth, only just beginning. Borel’s verdict on the departure is lapidary: “met zijn vertrek was het tweede bedrijf van het Atjehsche drama afgespeeld” — with his departure the second act of the Atjeh drama was played out.
The Troops Ship Out
On 24 and 25 April 1874 the troops marked for return to Java were ingescheept. The reduction had been decided in the wake of van Swieten’s declaration that the war was over. The Javaansche hulptroepen of Mangkoe Negoro and Pakoe Alam were among the first to go, along with a veld-batterij. The vesting-artillerie — one of the two companies, with much of their materieel, including the achterlaadkanonnen of 12 c.M. — was likewise embarked for return to Java. The best geschut the Dutch possessed was, by van Swieten’s order, leaving Atjeh at the very moment the enemy was reinforcing for a fresh offensive. The one voordeel of the échec at Lampoe Oek of 16 April 1874 was, Borel drily notes, that a half bataljon extra was kept in Atjeh — “à quelque chose malheur est bon.”
The Departure
On 25 April 1874 van Swieten himself boarded the stoomschip Prins Alexander der Nederlanden in the roadstead of Atjeh. On the morning of 26 April 1874 a “saluut uit de zware vuurmonden der oorlogschepen” — a salute from the heavy guns of the warships — announced his departure. The Prins Alexander weighed anchor and steamed out of the roadstead. Van Swieten would land at Batavia and proceed to the Netherlands, where he would publish his defence of the campaign. Kolonel Pel — who had commanded the 2de brigade throughout the expedition, who had personally led the flanking move that carried the Mesigit on 6 January 1874, and who had been the most consistent advocate of an active defence — inherited the command of the bezettingskorps, the civil bestuur of Kota Radja, and the conduct of the war.
The Inheritance
What Pel inherited was, in Borel’s account, a “zeer gebrekkige stelling.” The Dutch held the Kraton, the bivouak of Penajoeng, the marine-benteng halfway down the Atjeh-rivier, and the river mouth at Kwala Atjeh. Beyond that, nothing. The Pedir-dijk was in Dutch hands only nominally; the western approach to the Kraton was commanded by the new Atjehnees fortification at Lampoe Oek; the southern and eastern faces were dominated by enemy kampongs within easy rifle range. The coastal route to Marassa and the future site of Oeleh Leh was vulnerable; no proper zeehoofd had been built. The Atjehnees volkskarakter had been roused, not defeated. Within hours of van Swieten’s departure, the first alarm would sound at Kota Radja, and the desecration of the Dutch graves at Lampoeloe would be perpetrated by the Atjehneezen overrunning the abandoned bivouak at Penajoeng.
Borel’s Verdict
“Met zijn vertrek was het tweede bedrijf van het Atjehsche drama afgespeeld.” Borel’s framing of the campaign as a drama in five acts places van Swieten’s departure at the close of the second. The first act — the first expedition under Köhler — had ended in failure and the inquiry. The second act — the second expedition under van Swieten — had opened with the landing at Pedro-punt of 6 December 1873 and closed with the departure of 26 April 1874. The third act — the period of the afwachtende houding — would now begin, with Pel struggling to recover from the position he had inherited, and the Atjehneezen pressing their advantage at every point.
Account from Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk (1886)
Verstege supplies the immediate echoes of the day: hardly had the chief force departed on 26 April 1874 than that same evening much motion prevailed with the enemy; south and east of the Kraton numerous armed bands moved and approached so close to the eastern face that the garrison stood under arms and some shots were exchanged. Already in the morning an Arab, one of the most trusted Dutch spies, had brought the report that the enemy in great number would try to cut the chief position off from the sea and so make it untenable; the Marinebenting and other points along the Atjeh river were alarmed, and the communication with the sea seriously threatened. The day after, the enemy punished Marassa, the moekim of the Dutch allies of the first and second expeditions, and laid seven kampongs in ashes. Of the position left behind, Verstege’s count (see Verstege’s folding map of Groot-Atjeh (1886)) is given at Bezettingskorps in Atjeh; the occupants of that “zeer gebrekkige stelling” on 26 April numbered 128 officers and 3,151 men, with 178 Europeans and 41 natives already in hospital. On 12 May 1874 — the Jubilee of the King’s 25th year of government, a rest day — 308 patients lay in the ambulance and 223 sick in quarters; on 20 May the sick and wounded made a seventh of the whole strength; from 26 April to the end of December 902 died and 1,917 were evacuated (Kielstra D. II, pp. 94, 194). Kolonel Pel, to keep the enemy off, was forced to ask for the return of the achterlaadgeschut van Swieten had sent away, and was granted 500 men of supplements in June 1874; later reinforcements are at Bezettingskorps in Atjeh. Against these realities Verstege sets the content of the Buitenzorg letter of 19 July 1874 — “de gelukkige wending die de oorlog genomen heeft … toegelaten verder te gaan, Groot-Atjeh als wingewest in eigen beheer te nemen” (“the happy turn the war has taken … allowed us to proceed to take Groot-Atjeh as a dependency in own management”) with moderate demands to the Atjehers — and of the 27 October vindication of the waiting posture.
See Also
- Second Aceh Expedition (1873–1874)
- Van Swieten declares the Aceh War ended (1874)
- Van Swieten’s afscheidsrede (1874)
- Battle of Lampoe Oek (16 April 1874)
- Desecration of Dutch graves at Lampoeloe (1874)
- Jan van Swieten
- Generaal Pel
- Vesting-artillerie in Atjeh
- Achterlaadkanonnen van 12 c.M.
- Mangkoe Negoro
- Pakoe Alam
- Afwachtende houding
- 1874
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 77, 79, 86, 96, 104, 116, 121.
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), pp. 49-52, 126-127. OCR: DLP-158.