Du Bus de Valempré was an infantry captain of the Netherlands East Indies Army serving in the Lamtoba column of 1879, who commanded the rear guard on the first day’s march from Lampanas and the main body in the punitive expedition against Kepaja Doewa, as recorded in W. Cool and G. B. Hooijer’s Eene schoone bladzijde uit Atjeh’s geschiedenis (1889).
The march of 28 July 1879
On the march from Lampanas of 28 July 1879 Du Bus de Valempré commanded the achterhoede — the rear guard — composed of the 1st section of the 2nd Company of the 9e Bataljon Infanterie, the whole of the provision transport, and behind it the three remaining sections of that company. The rear guard, with the coolies and convict labourers of the provision train incorporated in it, attained a very great length on the narrow mountain paths, and had to be strongly protected by infantry: at every check thrown by the artillery or the coolie train, and at every halt, the formation closed up in column while the flanking patrols searched the ground right and left. In the bivak of that night — on the banks of a side stream of the Kroeng Plinten — and in the resume given for the instruction of non-military readers of the column’s regulation order of march, the captain’s post is the model by which the authors explain the protection of a supply train in mountain warfare.
The Kepaja Doewa expedition
In the expedition against Kepaja Doewa, marched at six o’clock in the morning with five companies of infantry, the section of guns, the 2nd section of mortars, the detachment of Mineurs and an ambulance of twenty-five tandoes, the command of the voorhoede lay with Majoor Coblijn and the command of the hoofdtroep with Kapitein Du Bus de Valempré. In the return of that day — the troops pursued over the same obstacles as on the outward march and fired after by enemies who had to be kept at a respectful distance by repeated volleys — the advance guard reached the bivak at half past six, the rear guard not until seven o’clock, in the dark.
See Also
- Lamtoba column (1879)
- Colonne
- Punitive expedition against Kepaja Doewa (August 1879)
- March from Lampanas to Lamtoba (28–29 July 1879)
- 9e Bataljon Infanterie
- 1879
Source
Eene schoone bladzijde uit Atjeh’s geschiedenis, door W. Cool en G. B. Hooijer (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1889), pp. 14, 26, 29. OCR-filename: 20260720_115822_DLP-135-Eene_schoone_bladzijde_uit_Atjeh_s_geschiedenis_Nemotron_OCR_v2_OCR.txt.