Lamsajoen was an Atjehnees kampong in the III Moekims conquered on 4 February 1876 in Pel’s great winter offensive and adjacent to the site of the Atoeh catastrophe of 13 February 1876, in which kapitein van Swieten’s reinforcement detachment was massacred on the drassige sawah (marshy rice field) near Lamsajoen. The kampong was part of the XXV Moekims sector taken in the first phase of the offensive.
The conquest of 4 February 1876
The conquest of Lamsajoen was part of the closing sweep of the XXV Moekims. From Toeram, which bordered the gebied of Toekoe Bait of the XXII Moekims, the Dutch had made an inval into the III Moekims on 3 February 1876, driving the enemy out of Atoeh after a heeten strijd. The next day, 4 February 1876, the colonne continued noordoostelijk: Lamrong and Lamsajoen were conquered, along with Kajoe Leh, Lambaroe and Pager Ajer Mesigit, and via Tandjoeng and Bayoer communication was established with the Longbatta-Mesigit. On 7 February 1876 the troepen returned to K. Radja after a 10-day tocht; total losses were five dead and 59 wounded, “betrekkelijk gering.” With the conquest of Lamsajoen and its neighbours, the entire Sagie of the XXV Moekims fell into Dutch hands; the demarcatie-linie now 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 Atoeh catastrophe
Lamsajoen’s place in Borel’s narrative is fixed by the catastrophe of 13 February 1876, which took place on the drassige sawah near Lamsajoen, almost at the destination of kapitein van Swieten’s reinforcement column. Pel had granted the troepen only a couple of days’ rest at K. Radja before advancing in oostelijke richting with three colonnes against the III Moekims on 13 February 1876. On 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 sawah near Lamsajoen. The enemy sprang from the boschrand; the attack was “zoo snel” that most soldiers were severely wounded before they could verzamelen. Bijna allen sneuvelden “met wonden overdekt”; only a few escaped by flight. On hearing the news, majoor B. E. Mekern changed route, marched on Atoeh, zuiverde the terrain. Bodies were “voor schending bewaard” — preserved from desecration — and “met de hun verschuldigde eer ter aarde besteld.”
Account from H. F. Meijer (1883) — the kampong south of the Dutch line, 1876
Meijer gives Lamsajoeng fuller treatment than any other kampong of the south-east line: just cleared and partly burned by the Dutch in the days of Pel’s conquest, it stands between Lambaroe and Kajoe-Lē on the open sawah across which ran the destroyed road of the first-line posts. In the nipah bush opposite it about three hundred Atjehers gathered in February 1876 and made it their place of assembly for the attack that on 13 February destroyed Captain Van Swieten’s detachment between it and Tjot Bēhēl on the open sawah two thousand paces south of it — the Atoeh catastrophe. From the same kampong, with Lambaroe and Lamrong, the enemy drew his occupation that by early March had cut the road between Kajoe-Lē and Longbatah altogether, until the storming of 7 March broke his blockade.
That narrows with the kampong Tjot Bēhēl was for the line troops the most dreaded passage in the daily fouraging between the posts, the ground of the ambush of 4 March in which 1 man fell and 19 were wounded; at the beginning of June the garrison of the new post at Atoë Noord was still having its daily patrols fired upon from its edges; and through it marched, finally, the 3rd column of the Biloel Zuid operation of 14–15 May, with the kampong being burned by the 3rd column’s advance on the 14th.
Account from Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk (1886)
Verstege names the watchhouse of Lamsajoen one of the eighteen posts of the new line of 1885 — “Wachthuis Lamsajoen” in the official list given at Postenlinie (see Completion of the concentrated position (March 1885)).
See Also
- Atoeh
- III Moekims
- XXV Moekims
- Pager Ajer
- Lambaroe
- Longbatta-Mesigit
- Atjeh-rivier
- Kroeng Raba
- Jan van Swieten (Kapitein)
- Majoor B. E. Mekern
- Generaal Pel
- Atoeh catastrophe (13 February 1876)
- Pel’s offensive against the VI, IV and IX Moekims (1875–1876)
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 327–329.
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), p. 81. OCR: DLP-158.