The Capture of Indrapuri on 24 March 1879 was the taking of the famous missigit of Indrapuri by the Dutch troops under the governor Major-general K. van der Heyden in the opening operation of the campaign against the XXII Moekims. The capture was achieved by a stratagem: a guide and five unarmed native soldiers swam the river and set fire to some houses, leading the enemy to believe that part of the troops had crossed; then some fifty soldiers, mostly Buginese, swam across and charged the mosque at the double, and the enemy abandoned it without a blow on the part of the Dutch.
Background
After the submission of Habib Abdurrahman on 13 October 1878 the campaign against the XXII Moekims was decided upon. In his cabinet letter of 21 March 1879 the Governor-General Van Lansberge instructed Van der Heyden that “the war must now come to an end.” On 23 March [1879] the columns marched.
The Capture
The troops, which had marched on 23 March [1879], reached on 24 March [1879] along the sultan’s road, now and then coming into fight with the enemy, Gle Kambing, opposite the missigit of Indrapuri. As the river proved not to be fordable, the guide was allowed, with five unarmed native soldiers, to swim across the river to set fire to some houses. “This bold deed indeed had the predicted effect; the enemy, already plagued from three sides by our fire, evidently got into the belief that part of the troops had crossed the river, ceased his fire and abandoned the missigit. But as this was not soon occupied by our men, he saw his mistake and occupied his fortification anew. When, however, some fifty soldiers, mostly Buginese, had swum across the river and charged the mosque at the double, the enemy abandoned it anew and it fell without a blow into our hands.”
Significance
The capture of Indrapuri was the opening operation of the campaign against the XXII Moekims of 1879, which culminated in the fall of Gleiêng on 9 July [1879]. But the capture did not lead to the desired submission. “On the contrary, it was as if the struggle, under the leadership of our embittered enemies — Panglima Polim, Imam Longbatta and others — flared up with new strength.” The campaign continued with heavy fighting at Djerreek, Redep, Panteh Karang in May, and at Gleiêng in July.
Account from Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk (1886)
Verstege names the same opening of van der Heyden’s campaign: on 23 March 1879 the war operations in the XXII Moekims were resumed, “en reeds den volgenden dag werd de sterke Missigit Indrapoerie, het oude en vermaarde heiligdom der bovenlanden, dat door den onverzoenlijken Imam Longbattah was bezet, met een onbeduidend verlies van onze zijde vermeesterd” (“and already the next day the strong Missigit Indrapoerie, the old and famous sanctuary of the highlands, which was occupied by the irreconcilable Imam Longbattah, was taken with an insignificant loss on our side”). Indrapoerie afterwards remained a Dutch fortification, keystone of the pacification marches to Selimoen that summer, until it was evacuated among the outer posts between 5 and 14 January 1885 at the execution of the concentration (see Completion of the concentrated position (March 1885)).
See Also
- K. van der Heyden
- J. W. van Lansberge
- Indrapoeri
- missigit Indrapoeri
- XXII Moekims
- Campaign against the XXII Moekims (1879)
- Capture of Gleiêng (9 July 1879)
- Panglima Polim
- Imam of Longbatta
- 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. 103-104.
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, 81. OCR: DLP-158.