Lampoeloe was a kampong near the Dutch bivouak at Penajoeng on the right bank of the Atjeh-rivier, the site of the Dutch military cemetery desecrated by the Atjehneezen on 26 April 1874 in the desecration of Dutch graves at Lampoeloe, and the scene of the battle of 20 June 1874 in which majoor Scharp’s half-battalion drove the enemy from the position. Borel treats the desecration as “de eerste wrange vrucht, door het verderfelijke stelsel der passieve houding afgeworpen” — the first bitter fruit of the pernicious system of passive defence.
The desecration
As soon as the last Dutch troops withdrew from Penajoeng to the captured Kraton on 26 April 1874 — the day of van Swieten’s departure from Atjeh — the Atjehneezen overran the gewezen legerplaats (former camp), looting “ledige flesschen, kisten en anderen rommel” (empty bottles, chests, and other rubbish). Worst of all, they committed the “schandelijk” act of desecrating the Dutch cemetery at Lampoeloe. “Alles werd door de Atjehneezen vernield en verwoest; zelfs lijken werden opgegraven en met echte kannibalenwoede aan stukken gehakt” — everything was wrecked and destroyed; even corpses were dug up and hacked to pieces with true cannibal rage. This was, Borel stresses, “des te minder te verschoonen” because the Dutch had always treated the enemy dead with eerbied.
The battle of 20 June 1874
Lampoeloe next appears as an enemy position at the northern edge of the old bivouak, from which the Atjehneezen fired on the Kraton with increasing boldness through the May–June 1874 crisis. On 19 June 1874 luitenant Sloet van Zwanenburg led a patrol from Penajoeng on the right bank to reconnoitre Lampoeloe; he was discovered in his ravine, badly shot up, and had to retreat in haste, severely wounded — he died of his wounds days later. The next morning, 20 June 1874, the enemy shelled the Kraton from the east with unusual violence and the whole garrison stood to arms; majoor Scharp then attacked Lampoeloe with a half-battalion, drove the enemy from his positions, and captured the half-built benteng by the river. The cost was 34 Dutch dead and wounded — the first Dutch offensive since the expedition to Ketapang Doewa of 15 February 1874, four months earlier, “the first step on a new road.”
See Also
- Penajoeng
- Atjeh-rivier
- Majoor Scharp
- Luitenant Sloet van Zwanenburg
- Desecration of Dutch graves at Lampoeloe (1874)
- Battle of Lampoeloe (20 June 1874)
- Crisis at Kota Radja (May–June 1874)
- Garouw
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 92, 114, 122–124, 132–133, 141, 152–155.