The Capture of Gleiêng (also written Gléiëng) on 9 July 1879 was the taking of the fortified and well-armed chief place of Panglima Polem in the XXII Moekims of Atjeh by the Dutch troops under the governor Major-general K. van der Heyden, the culminating episode of the campaign against the XXII Moekims. With the fall of Gleiêng, the resistance of the XXII Moekims was broken, and those who wished to continue the war fled to the XXVI Moekims, from which they were in turn driven by the campaign of early July 1879.
Background
After the capture of Indrapuri on 24 March 1879 the campaign in the XXII Moekims had to be continued, for the capture had not led to the desired submission. Heavy fighting followed at Djerreek, Redep, Panteh Karang in May. On 6 May and 7 May [1879] great losses were inflicted on the Dutch at Panteh Karang, but in the end the enemy was driven out.
The Capture
As the operations for the submission of the XXII Moekims had to be continued, the troops on 31 May [1879] again advanced on Gleiêng, the fortified and well-armed chief place of Panglima Polem. “After a tiring march and repeated fights, this was at last reached and taken on 9 July [1879].”
Significance
“With this the campaign in the XXII Moekims was over and the objective fully attained. The enemy’s resistance was broken, and those who wished to continue the war had fled to the XXVI Moekims.” Already in April [1879] Panglima Tiban Mohammed, the former sjabandar of Atjeh, had submitted, with the intention of joining the Dutch to bring the war to a close as soon as possible; he rendered great services in the following years. Toekoe Moeda Baid, on the other hand, of whom it more and more appeared that he played a treacherous role, was taken prisoner on 9 May [1879] and transported to Batavia in July, where the Governor-General banished him to Banda.
The fall of Gleiêng opened the way to the campaign against the XXVI Moekims of 1 July 1879 – 4 July 1879 and to the Selimoen expedition of August 1879, which together completed the first conquest of Great Acheh.
Account from Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk (1886)
Verstege - whose own dating differs from the one above, the fall being laid in the morning of 5 June 1879 - records the same fact: the extensive and strong positions of Gleieng, “de verblijfplaats van het zoo gevreesde sagiehoofd PANGLIMA POLIM” (“the dwelling-place of the so feared sagie-head Panglima Polim”), were captured with only slight loss on the Dutch side, the said head himself “die echter onze komst niet had durven afwachten” (“who however had not dared to await our arrival”); and after the storm the days of 9 and 10 June 1879 were employed in completing the success, in driving the fleeing enemy out of his hiding-corners and forcing him to submission. In the captured strongholds were found, besides a great stock of gunpowder and bullets, 24 pieces of cannon, most of them of too great calibre to be carried off, and they were made unfit for further use; with the conquest of Gleieng the veldtocht in the XXII Moekims was held to be ended (see Campaign against the XXII Moekims (1879)), those who still wished to fight on having gone over to the XXVI Moekims.
See Also
- K. van der Heyden
- Panglima Polim
- Gleiêng
- XXII Moekims
- Capture of Indrapuri (24 March 1879)
- Campaign against the XXII Moekims (1879)
- Campaign against the XXVI Moekims (July 1879)
- Selimoen Expedition (August 1879)
- Panglima Tiban Mohammed
- Toekoe Moeda Baid
- Djerreek
- Redep
- Panteh Karang
- 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. 102-105.
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), p. 60. OCR: DLP-158.