Lieutenant Sloet van Zwanenburg was a Dutch luitenant of the Indische leger who led the patrol from Penajoeng on 19 June 1874 to reconnoitre Lampoeloe on the right bank of the Atjeh-rivier, and who was discovered in his ravine, badly shot up, and forced to retreat in haste; severely wounded, he died of his wounds days later. He is the first named Dutch officer killed during Pel’s command, in the run-up to the battle of Lampoeloe of 20 June 1874.
The Reconnaissance of 19 June 1874
By mid-June 1874 the crisis at Kota Radja was at its depth. Some companies could field fewer than thirty men of an original 125; the Atjehneezen crept closer, “feasting under gamelan and drumming at 300–400 paces from the parapet, eating stolen Dutch slaughter-oxen.” On 19 June 1874 a column of 150 bayonets and an artillery section marched from Kota Radja to clear the left bank north of Kampong Djawa — the Dutch cemetery at Lampoeloe, desecrated by the Atjehneezen on 26 April 1874 in the first wrange vrucht of the passieve stelsel, lay just beyond. Simultaneously Sloet van Zwanenburg led a patrol from Penajoeng on the right bank. The day was ongunstig: the Atjehneezen held Lampoeloe in force. Sloet was discovered in his ravine, badly shot up, and forced to retreat in haste. He was severely wounded in the action and died of his wounds days later.
The Battle of 20 June 1874
The next morning, 20 June 1874, the enemy shelled Kota Radja from the east with unusual violence; the whole garrison stood to arms; salvoes of Beaumont rifles were needed at Kota Podjoet and Pakan Atjeh to drive back the attackers. Then majoor Scharp with a half-battalion attacked Lampoeloe itself, in the first Dutch offensive since the expedition to Ketapang Doewa of 15 February 1874 four months earlier. The enemy was driven from his positions; a half-built benteng by the river was captured. The cost was thirty-four Dutch dead and wounded. Borel judges the action “the first step on a new road.” Sloet van Zwanenburg’s patrol of 19 June 1874 had been the verkenning that revealed the strength of the enemy at Lampoeloe and so set the colonne of the 20th on its course.
See Also
- Battle of Lampoeloe (20 June 1874)
- Desecration of Dutch graves at Lampoeloe (1874)
- Crisis at Kota Radja (May–June 1874)
- Lampoeloe
- Penajoeng
- Majoor Scharp
- Generaal Pel
- Beaumont-geweer
- 1874
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. p. 153.