The Battle of Kotta Mogat (also written Kotta Mogat) on 8 April 1873 was the failed Dutch storming of the enemy fortification of Kotta Mogat on the first day of the first Aceh expedition, undertaken by the twelfth bataljon against the eastern of two fortifications near the landing beach west of the mouth of the Atjeh river. The failure — for want of the necessary ammunition and storm-ladders — caused the first day of the expedition to end in an échec, and was an early omen of the disaster that culminated in the death of General Köhler on 14 April 1873.
Background
The landing of the first Aceh expedition on 8 April 1873 west of the mouth of the Atjeh river immediately presented more difficulties than expected. From the fortification Kotta Pantej Termin, which had been taken on 6 April without a blow but had been evacuated, shots were now fired that cost the adelborst Zimmer his life. Hardly were a couple of companies on the beach when some 400 Atjehers emerged from the undergrowth, armed with flint-locks, blunderbusses, klewangs and lances, and stormed, after firing their small-arms, in blind rage, despite the fire of the skirmishers, with the white arms upon the troops. After a furious fight they had to leave the field with a loss of 82 dead.
The Storming and its Failure
When the infantry had landed, the twelfth bataljon was ordered to take the two eastern fortifications, Kotta Pantej Termin and Kotta Mogat. The first was found abandoned, but the storming of the second, even a second time after receiving reinforcements, failed, among other reasons for want of the necessary ammunition and storm-ladders. “Thus the first day already ended with an échec.” The next morning Kotta Mogat, after a breach had been shot in it by the guns of the warships, was found abandoned by the enemy and occupied without trouble by the Dutch.
Significance
The échec at Kotta Mogat was an early indication that the first Aceh expedition had been prepared on false assumptions. The Indies government had no general staff in the Indies, and was “almost wholly unacquainted with land and population of Atjeh.” Although already in July 1871 the commander of the Indies army, Lieutenant-general W. E. Kroesen, had instructed the then colonel Köhler, military commandant of Sumatra’s Westkust, to collect all possible military data about Atjeh, the Indies government had refused a proposal to send a captain of the Indies army aboard the Djambi to inform himself locally of conditions. The failure at Kotta Mogat was followed by the failure at the missigit on 10 April and the death of Köhler on 14 April.
See Also
- J. H. R. Köhler
- First Aceh Expedition (1873)
- Battle of the Missigit (10 April 1873)
- Kotta Mogat
- Kotta Pantej Termin
- W. E. Kroesen
- Aceh War
Source
De geschiedenis van Nederland in onzen tijd, by J. A. de Bruyne, Directeur der Hoogere Burgerschool te Zierikzee. Deel IV. 1872-1883. Nieuwe uitgave. Schiedam: J. F. Dupont, 1912, Hoofdstuk I, pp. 13-14.