Lamkoenjit

Lamkoenjit was a Dutch temporary military post established in the XXV Moekims of Groot-Atjeh during the 1890s — a post that, like that at Biloel, was besieged by the forces of Toekoe Oemar after his defection in March 1896 and relieved on 9 April 1896 by the column under Kolonel Stemfoort. The post is also notable as the site of one of the engagements that produced the eerste offer van Toekoe Oemars afval — the first offering of Toekoe Oemar’s defection — when the body of Lieutenant Vuijk was carried through the gate of the benting on 30 March 1896. As described in Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96, Lamkoenjit lay in the sagi of the XXV Moekims on the road between Tjot Goeë and Biloel, at the site of one of the largest markets in the sagi, and was besieged and isolated from 29 March to 8 April 1896 in the immediate aftermath of the defection of Teuku Umar. The post was the scene of a heroic night defence on 4 April–5 April 1896 in which the garrison under 1e luit. Creutz Lechleitner repulsed a night attack with canister shot at less than 50 metres’ range fired by sergeant Vermeulen. Lamkoenjit was relieved on 8 April 1896 by a detachment under Kapitein Baron Collot d’Escury, and was evacuated and burned on 12 April 1896. The imam of Lamkoenjit later maintained the benteng Paja Krah on the south-east side of the Tjot Goeë hill.

The establishment of the post

The Atjeh-Album of 1896 records that the post at Lamkoenjit was established as one of the Dutch temporary posts in the XXV Moekims — together with Biloel, Anagaloeng and Senelop — during the late concentratie period. The post held a vaste bezetting (fixed garrison) in the 1890s, even though the situation in the surrounding territory was niet overal even schitterend (not everywhere equally brilliant). Within the geconcentreerde linie the Dutch were als in Abrahams schoot (as in Abraham’s bosom), but outside the line the population had weinig overlast van de Moslemin (little trouble from the Moslemin) — provided the hoofden were gunstig gestemd (favourably disposed).

The siege of March-April 1896

The Atjeh-Album records that, after Toekoe Oemar’s defection in March 1896, the post at Lamkoenjit was besieged by the forces of the defected warlord. The album’s narrative of the siege records the desperate situation of the garrison — Hoor de zware slagen der donderbussen, het onregelmatig geknal van de geweren der Atjehers, hun schelklinkend gegil, overstend door het hoera onzer soldaten — Hear the heavy blows of the blunderbusses, the irregular crackle of the Atjehnese rifles, their shrill-sounding yells, interrupted by the hurrah of our soldiers. The album’s narrative also records the anxiety of the besieged garrison at Anagaloeng — some four days’ march from Lamkoenjit — as they listened to the firing of the engagement and tried to judge from the sound whether the relieving force was a strong one.

The relief of 9 April 1896

The Atjeh-Album records that the post at Lamkoenjit was relieved on 9 April 1896 by a column of two battalions under the command of Kolonel Stemfoort. The relief was, however, costly: Captain Geluk and seven subordinates were killed, and Lieutenants ten Seldam and Hockstein were wounded together with 23 subordinates. After the relief, the post at Lamkoenjit — together with that at Biloel — was geslecht (dismantled), and the garrison was withdrawn to the geconcentreerde linie.

The role of the post in the 1896 crisis

The Atjeh-Album records that the post at Lamkoenjit — like that at Biloel — was one of the four Dutch temporary posts whose siege defined the spring 1896 crisis. The album’s narrative of the relief expeditions of April 1896 records that the column that relieved Biloel and Lamkoenjit then turned eastward to relieve Anagaloeng — a movement that required the dismantling of Biloel and Lamkoenjit before the column could proceed. The post at Lamkoenjit is thus the western anchor of the chain of Dutch temporary posts that defined the spring 1896 crisis, and its relief was the first of the three relief operations of April.

Description and Location (ATJEH ‘96 account)

As described in Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96, Lamkoenjit lay in the sagi of the XXV Moekims on the road between Tjot Goeë and Biloel, at the site of one of the largest markets in the sagi. The post was favourably placed to influence the lower part of the IX Moekims (the mukims of Oleh Soesoe and Lamkoenjit itself) and the great pasar (market) of Lamkoenjit. The garrison in 1895 consisted of 2 officers, 52 infantry, 10 artillery, and 1 European hospital attendant. Under 1e luit. Creutz Lechleitner during the siege of 29 March–8 April 1896 the garrison comprised 50 infantry, 10 artillery, and 1 medical orderly. The imam of Lamkoenjit maintained the benteng Paja Krah on the south-east side of the Tjot Goeë hill.

Historical Background (ATJEH ‘96 account)

Lamkoenjit had been constructed as part of the buitenlinie to dominate the great pasar of the IX Moekims and to support the adjacent posts of Biloel and Tjot Goeë. The post was a temporary post, a designation indicating its less-permanent character than the full buitenposten of Biloel and Ana’ Galong. The pasar of Lamkoenjit was the principal commercial centre of the lower IX Moekims and a meeting-point of Dutch and Achehnese trade. After 1893 the post was the scene of periodic incidents involving the legioen (auxiliary legion) of Teuku Umar and the benden (war-bands) of the Lamkrak country.

Role in the 1896 Operations (ATJEH ‘96 account)

Lamkoenjit was one of the two principal Dutch posts besieged in the immediate aftermath of the defection of 29 March 1896. From 29 March to 8 April 1896 the post was isolated and besieged; on 1 April 1896 a lost letter from the post-commandant to the assistant-resident gave details of the siege. On the night of 4 April–5 April 1896 the garrison under 1e luit. Creutz Lechleitner repulsed a night attack by canister shot at less than 50 metres’ range fired by sergeant Vermeulen — a heroic defence that became one of the celebrated episodes of the siege. On 8 April 1896 a detachment under Kapitein Baron Collot d’Escury (4th company 14e Bataljon, 2 officers + 75 bayonets) fought through to relieve the garrison. On 12 April 1896 Lamkoenjit was evacuated and burned together with Biloel by order of the Regeeringscommissaris Vetter. The imam of Lamkoenjit thereafter maintained the benteng Paja Krah on the south-east side of the Tjot Goeë hill, which was a target of later Dutch operations. On 31 March 1896 the post-commandant received the report of 1e luit. Neelmeijer brought by T. Nja Banta and a population patrol approximately 7:30 PM. After the defection the imam of Lamkoenjit was among the Achehnese leaders associated with the benteng Paja Krah against the Dutch.

Significance

Lamkoenjit’s significance in the documentary record of the Atjeh-oorlog is as one of the four Dutch temporary posts besieged in the spring 1896 crisis, and as the western anchor of the chain of posts whose relief defined the April operations. Its relief on 9 April 1896 cost the life of Captain Geluk — the third officer fatality of the spring crisis — and its dismantling after the relief illustrates the way in which the temporary posts were geslecht once their relief had been accomplished. Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96 adds that Lamkoenjit was the most-fought-over of the Dutch tijdelijke posten (temporary posts) in the buitenlinie, and its heroic night defence of 4 April–5 April 1896 under 1e luit. Creutz Lechleitner became one of the celebrated episodes of the defection crisis. The post’s evacuation on 12 April 1896 marked the formal end of the buitenlinie in the XXV Moekims. The continued association of the imam of Lamkoenjit with the benteng Paja Krah indicated that the post’s political and military significance continued even after its physical evacuation.

Account in Hooijer’s De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897)

Lam Koenjit was a Dutch temporary intermediate post established on 4 July 1894 on the road between Tjot Goeë and Biloel in Groot-Atjeh, erected against the attacks of Toekoe Rajoet, imam of the III Moekims Daroe, and nicknamed by its garrison Lam Loempoer — “mud village” — for the state of its ground.

Foundation

The road connecting Tjot Goeë and Biloel had been very unsafe at first. Transports marching along it often suffered from the enemy and were obliged to push part of the covering troops forward to take post at Lam Koenjit and, with volleys into the kampongs (villages) where the enemy lay concealed, to make possible the advance of the remainder. For that reason a very temporary intermediate post was erected there on 4 July 1894. Together with Biloel at the foot of the steep southern mountains and Tjot Goeë to the north, it also served to separate the XXII Moekims more effectively from those of the IX Moekims.

Conditions

The garrison numbered two officers and fifty men, living under the down-draughts sweeping along the mountains and in the shade of the high palms shooting up between their dwellings. Mosquitoes, breeding luxuriantly in the surrounding pools, gave more trouble than the enemy. The ground was so muddy that the post was called Lam Loempoer, mud village, and even the water in the old well was unusable; water was therefore brought continually from Tjot Goeë, until on the ongeluksdag — the day of ill luck — of 29 March 1896 the patrols, which were always accompanied by a tame black sheep, came to the conviction that the post was surrounded and that they would henceforth have to make do with muddy water.

Fortification and signboards

The post commandant, Luitenant Creutz Lechleitner, described by Hooijer as immer waakzaam (ever vigilant), hoped to prevent the enemy from penetrating. Above the outwork enclosed by ijzerdraadversperring, within which the kitchen stood, rose a watch-house from which the enemy’s approach could be barred; it bore the name Eikhoren. Other signboards — In de Villa Sans Souci, and In den Soldatenhemel: alles vrij behalve muskieten (“In the Soldiers’ Heaven: everything free except mosquitoes”) — proved, in Hooijer’s judgment, that the soldiers had not yet found the situation hopeless and had kept their humour. Entering the gate of the outwork, over which the name of the post was written, one turned left to enter the benteng proper, in whose bastions two 7½ cm. field-pieces and a cochoornmortier were mounted.

The night assault of 4–5 April 1896

In the night of 4 April to 5 April 1896 one of the bastions was stormed by the enemy; had the gun there not been loaded with case-shot, Hooijer wrote, the attack might have proved fatal.

Daily routine

Before those days of tension, life at Lam Koenjit was quiet and extremely dull. Reveille sounded at half past five in the morning and coffee was issued; at ten came the meal of soup with rice and sambal (chilli relish), preceded by fatigues in and around the post; in the middle of the day, when the sun blazed hardest, everyone not on guard sought rest in the shade. At half past four in the afternoon the mess-kettles were filled again, and before both meals the oorlam — the ration of Schiedam gin so prized by the soldier — was swallowed at a single draught. In the cool evening hours there was singing, talking, card-playing (which the soldiers called smoezen), and for the native soldiers kisnen and dominoes, while as sweet sounds as possible were coaxed from the harmonica.

Towards midday the cart with vivres arrived daily — often fired at — together with the letters, under a small covering party of Achehnese. That, Hooijer wrote, was really the most important hour of the day: the post commander emerged from the old Messigit in which the officers lived, still in night-trousers and kabaai (loose jacket), and the soldiers ran together to hear news of friends and comrades from whom they were separated for the fourteen days of a detacheering, and news from Kota Radja, for whose bustle and great canteen they longed.

Abandonment

Lam Koenjit was lifted together with Biloel four days after the relief of Tjot Goeë in April 1896, and went up in flames as the Dutch withdrew.

Account from H. F. Meijer (1883) — the kampong in the IX Moekims, 1876

Meijer places Lamkoenjit between Biloel and Boekit Daroe in the IX Moekims, a wooded and populous kampong whose covering ground gave the enemy the standing ambush cover on the road between those two posts. The enemy nested there — with Lamtadoe and Tjot Bēhēl — within days of the departure of Pel’s operating force in February 1876, and from it, on 17 February, his bands surprised the 13-man detachment on that road in the ambush of 17 February, the first alarm of the month between those posts.

Meijer drew the kampong then as one of the principal resorts of the enemy in his double role as raider and harvester of the standing paddy: from its cover he descended by day on stray parties and by night cut the grain. The Dutch march of the two columns of 14 May 1876 past its western edge found it, as ever, suspiciously empty on their approach.

Sources

Atjeh-Album van Eigen Haard, uitgave van de N.V. Het Tijdschrift “Eigen Haard”, Amsterdam, 1896, pp. 7, 9–11, 22 (De Poeassa — Eindelijk Ontzet; Een Terugblik — Wat Reeds Verkregen Werd; De Inwendige Toestand — Wat Nu?).

ATJEH ‘96, door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 2 kaarten en 4 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_2_kaarten_en4_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt, pp. 21–23, 32, 39–40, 42, 48–51, 57, 60, 62–64, 66–71, 76–78, 81, 270, 320, 331, 511.

De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh, door G. B. Hooijer, Gep. Luit.-Kolonel O. I. Leger, met 24 platen (Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn; Batavia: G. Kolff & Co., 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Centrale Boekerij, Amsterdam. OCR-filename: 20260719_140140_DLP-134-De_verlaten_posten_in_Groot_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 14, 18.

Acknowledgement of sources. This article is a single consolidated account combining the material previously held in this entry with the account given in De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897) by G. B. Hooijer. Dutch terminology has been rendered in English, the original Dutch being retained only in direct quotations and in bibliographic citations.

tags	place, military-post, aceh-war, 1896, aceh, xxv-moekims, groot-atjeh, besieged-post, dutch, colonial, benteng, xxii-moekims
aliases	Lamkunjut, Lamkonjit, Lam Koenjit, Lamkoenjtt, the post at Lamkoenjit, Lam Kocnjit, Lam Loempoer, Lam Loempoer (modderdorp), post Lam Koenjit

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