Atoeh (also written Atoch) was an Atjehnees kampong in the III Moekims on the right bank of the Atjeh-rivier and the site of the catastrophe of 13 February 1876 in which kapitein van Swieten’s detachment — two officers and 57 men, ten of them unarmed — was massacred on the drassige sawah (marshy rice field) near Lamsajoen by Atjehneezen springing from the boschrand. Borel treats it as the textbook example of what happens when a European column loses order on a marshy sawah.
The III Moekims invasion
Atoeh had been conquered on 3 February 1876 in the opening phase of Pel’s three-colonne operation against the III Moekims. From Toeram, which bordered the gebied of Toekoe Bait (one of the most hostile XXII Moekims chiefs), the Dutch had made an inval (inroad) into that sagi. After a heeten strijd the enemy was driven out of Atoeh. The conquest was part of the broader sweep through the XXV Moekims: by 4 February 1876 the colonne had taken Lamrong and Lamsajoen, Kajoe Leh, Lambaroe and Pager Ajer Mesigit, and via Tandjoeng and Bayoer had established communication with the Longbatta-Mesigit. On 7 February 1876 the troepen returned to K. Radja after a 10-day tocht — total losses five dead and 59 wounded, “betrekkelijk gering.” The entire Sagie of the XXV Moekims was now in Dutch hands; the demarcatie-linie ran from the mouth of the Kroeng Raba on the west coast to Atoeh, then northward to Pager Ajer on the left bank of the Atjeh-rivier.
The catastrophe of 13 February 1876
Pel granted the troepen only a couple of days’ rest at K. Radja, then advanced in oostelijke richting with three colonnes against the III Moekims on 13 February 1876. The same day, kapitein van Swieten — marching from K. Radja with two officers and 57 men (10 unarmed) to reinforce the Atoeh post — was attacked on the drassige sawah near Lamsajoen, almost at his destination. The enemy sprang from the boschrand; the attack was “zoo snel” that most soldiers were severely wounded before they could verzamelen (rally). Bijna allen sneuvelden “met wonden overdekt” — almost all fell covered with wounds; only a few escaped by flight. Bodies lay on the field; wapens and munitie were carried off by the enemy. Borel asks how a fairly strong, achterladegewapende (breech-loading-armed) afdeeling could be overvallen on open terrain in broad daylight — and answers by recalling the disastrous 31 December 1874 Longbatta march over the doorweekte sawah, where all order was lost. The Atjehnees charge like “eene woeste onverwachte charge van cavallerie” — a wild, unexpected cavalry charge.
Account from H. F. Meijer (1883) — first-line post of the Zuidoosterlinie, 1876
Meijer places Atoë among the seven first-line works of the south-east line of 1876 (Biloel, Atoë, Atoë Noord, Kajoe-Lē, Lambaroe, Mesigit Pagar-Ajer, Pagar-Ajer). An old Atjehnese fortification, taken by the Dutch on 3 February 1876 after hot fighting and occupied as a post, it consisted of an old Atjeh fortification standing near the kampong of the same name. Garrisoned initially by two companies of the left half of the 6th Infantry Battalion under Major J. Visser, it was the nearest Dutch post to the ground on which, on 13 February, the detachment of Captain Van Swieten was destroyed in the open sawah west of Lamsajoeng, with only some thirteen men reaching the post alive.
The chapter on the post and its neighbourhood gives his daily price: nightly alarm firing against enemies prowling around it; the June flood, standing 20 to 30 centimetres high inside the new work at Atoë Noord, where the enemy was suspected of having dammed one of the small channel brooks against it; patrols punished by hostile fire at Oleh-Atoë on 2 August and two native fusiliers caught and killed while picking fruit outside it on 30 June; and, on 21 March and on 22–23 March, the road battle north of the kampong that gave the line its new middle post Atoë Noord.
See Also
- III Moekims
- Lamsajoen
- Pager Ajer
- Lambaroe
- XXV Moekims
- XXII Moekims
- Toekoe Bait
- Jan van Swieten (Kapitein)
- Generaal Pel
- Atoeh catastrophe (13 February 1876)
- Battle of Longbatta (31 December 1874)
- Sawah
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 327–329.