The XXVI Moekims campaign of July–September 1879 — the veldtocht tegen de XXVI Moekims (campaign against the XXVI Moekims), opened by Generaal van der Heijden in July 1879 and “schitterend besloten door den tocht naar Selimoen” (brilliantly concluded by the expedition to Selimoen) — was the second of the three Sagi (traditional administrative divisions) campaigns of Groot-Atjeh and the campaign that, in Van Heutsz’s reading, completed the military conquest of the Atjeh valley. Where the XXII Moekims campaign of July–October 1878 had broken the resistance of Habib Abdoel Rachman and Tekoe Moeda Baid in the western Sagi, the Sagi of the XXVI Moekims campaign of July–September 1879 carried the Dutch standard to Kroeng Kali in the north, to Tjot Lepong in the east, and to Selimoen in the south — the limits Van Heutsz catalogues from the verslag van den Commandant van het Indische leger (report of the Commander of the Indian army) — and closed, on 5 September 1879, with the day-order declaring “geheel Groot-Atjeh ten onder gebragt” (all Groot-Atjeh brought under). Van Heutsz, who served as Van der Heijden’s chef van den staf (chief of staff) in Atjeh, treats the campaign as the operational climax of the Atjeh-oorlog — the moment at which, “nog geen 14 maanden na het begin van zijne zegerijke veldtochten” (not yet 14 months after the beginning of his victorious campaigns), the General “aan alle verzet een einde gemaakt” had (had put an end to all resistance) and was, in the Atjehnese reading of the conquest, “de door den vijand gevreesde overwinnaar van het aloude machtige Atjehsche rijk” (the conqueror, feared by the enemy, of the ancient powerful Atjehnese empire).
The July 1879 opening of operations
The campaign opened in July 1879 as the natural continuation of the XXII Moekims campaign of the previous year. The two campaigns are treated by Van Heutsz as a single operational sequence — de krijgsoperatiën in de XXII en XXVI Moekims, die in Juli van het vorige jaar zijn aangevangen (the military operations in the XXII and XXVI Moekims, which began in July of the previous year) — and the XXVI campaign is described in its uitslag (result) rather than its day-to-day operations. Van Heutsz’s general formulation:
“In September 1879, nog geen 14 maanden na het begin van zijne zegerijke veldtochten, had Generaal v. d. Heijden aan alle verzet een einde gemaakt, was hij de door den vijand gevreesde overwinnaar van het aloude manfelikeljjke Atjehsche rijk, zetelde het Ned. bestuur volgens de Atjehsche begrippen, door het recht van verovering, op den troon van den Sultan”.
The phrase zetelde het Ned. bestuur volgens de Atjehsche begrippen, door het recht van verovering, op den troon van den Sultan (the Dutch administration sat, by Atjehnese understanding, by right of conquest, on the throne of the Sultan) — the Dutch administration sat, by Atjehnese understanding, by right of conquest, on the throne of the Sultan — is Van Heutsz’s formula for the political accomplishment of the campaign: the substitution of the Dutch bestuur (government) for the Atjehnese sultan (sultan) in the Atjehnese understanding of sovereignty.
The Kroeng Kali–Tjot Lepong limits
The geographic scope of the campaign is preserved by Van Heutsz in a blockquote from the verslag van den Commandant van het Indische leger (report of the Commander of the Indian army) — the September 1879 inspection report of the Commandant van het Indische leger that independently confirmed Van der Heijden’s declaration of total conquest. The blockquote names the three limits — the outermost Dutch pickets in each of the three Sagi’s:
“Een feit toch is het, dat ik geheel Groot-Atjeh, voor zoover het edoor ons bezet is, heb doorkruist; in de XXII Moekims tot onzen <uitersten wachtpost Djerir, in de XXVI Moekims tot Kroeng Kali <in het Noorden, tot Tjot Lepong in het Oosten, en in de XXV (1) (1) Deze cursiveering is van mij. ooekims tot Kroeng Raba”.
The Sagi of the XXVI Moekims was thus carried to Kroeng Kali “in het Noorden” (in the North) and to Tjot Lepong “in het Oosten” (in the East) — the northern and eastern limits of the Sagi — while the XXII Moekims picket at Djerir (established in the previous year’s campaign) and the XXV Moekims limit at Kroeng Raba completed the catalogue. The verslag’s author — who had, Van Heutsz notes, “hoezeer slechts vergezeld door een twaalftal cavaleristen, nergens een schot gehoord of een gewapend Atjeher gezien” (although accompanied only by a dozen cavalrymen, nowhere heard a shot or saw an armed Atjehnese) — was the independent authority Van Heutsz invokes to confirm the geheel Groot-Atjeh ten onder (all Groot-Atjeh brought under) declaration of the day-order.
The Selimoen tocht (September 1879)
The campaign’s culminating operation was the tocht naar Selimoen (expedition to Selimoen) — the expedition to Selimoen in the XXVI Moekims in September 1879. Van Heutsz’s name for it — schitterend besloten door den tocht naar Selimoen (brilliantly concluded by the expedition to Selimoen) — marks it as the schitterende (brilliant) close of the XXVI campaign. The verslag van den Commandant van het Indische leger names the operational conception — “het stoute, met beleid ontworpen operatieplan volgens hetwelk Indrapoeri werd overmeesterd, de rechter rivieroever gezuiverd, Gleinn aangetast, de XXVI Moekims van verschillende zijden binnengedrongen en Selimoen door colonnes uit Lamtoba en Indrapoeri bezocht werd” (the bold, skilfully designed operation plan by which Indrapoeri was overwhelmed, the right river bank cleansed, Gleinn attacked, the XXVI Moekims entered from various sides and Selimoen visited by columns from Lamtoba and Indrapoeri) — and attributes the grote succes (great success) to it alone: “hieraan hebben wij het groote succes te danken. Alleen op deze wijze kon in betrekkelijk korten tijd zooveel verkregen worden” (to this we owe the great success. Only in this way could so much be obtained in a relatively short time). The Selimoen tocht was thus a converging-column operation — colonnes uit Lamtoba en Indrapoeri (columns from Lamtoba and Indrapoeri) — that closed the XXVI campaign and produced, with the day-order of 5 September 1879, the formal declaration of total conquest.
The day-order of 5 September 1879
The campaign closed, on 5 September 1879, with the day-order Van Heutsz reproduces in full from the original Dagorder (day-order) issued at Kota-Radja. The day-order — addressed to “Officieren, Ambtenaren, Onderofficieren en Soldaten!” (Officers, Officials, Non-commissioned officers and Soldiers!) and signed “K. VAN DER HEUDEN” — opens with the declaration “Met den veldtocht tegen de XXVI Moekims, schitterend besloten door den tocht naar Selimoen; is geheel Groot-Atjeh ten onder gebragt” (With the campaign against the XXVI Moekims, brilliantly concluded by the expedition to Selimoen; all Groot-Atjeh has been brought under) and closes with the formula “LEVE DE KONING!” (LONG LIVE THE KING!). The verslag van den Commandant van het Indische leger of the same month confirmed, in its own idiom, the right of the General to make the declaration: “deze bevestigde in zijn aan de Regeering ingediend verslag geheel, dat de Generaal in zijne zoo even aangehaalde dagorder met recht zeggen mocht, dat geheel Groot-Atjeh ten onder was gebracht” (this confirmed, in his report submitted to the Government, entirely, that the General in his just-quoted day-order had the right to say that all Groot-Atjeh had been brought under).
Significance
The XXVI Moekims campaign of July–September 1879 is, in Van Heutsz’s narrative, the operational climax of the Atjeh-oorlog — the campaign that, in less than fourteen months from the opening of the XXII Moekims campaign of the previous July, completed the military conquest of Groot-Atjeh and produced the day-order of 5 September 1879 declaring “geheel Groot-Atjeh ten onder gebragt” (all Groot-Atjeh brought under). Its significance in the Aceh Wiki History record lies in four things. First, it carried the Dutch standard to the Kroeng Kali northern and Tjot Lepong eastern limits of the Sagi of the XXVI Moekims — the geographic limits catalogued in the verslag van den Commandant van het Indische leger (report of the Commander of the Indian army). Second, it closed with the Selimoen tocht (Selimoen expedition) — the schitterend (brilliant) converging-column operation on Selimoen by colonnes uit Lamtoba en Indrapoeri (columns from Lamtoba and Indrapoeri) that became, in Van Heutsz’s reading, the model of the stoute, met beleid ontworpen operatieplan (bold, skilfully designed operation plan). Third, it produced the day-order of 5 September 1879 — the formal declaration that “geheel Groot-Atjeh ten onder gebragt” was, and the high-water mark of the Dutch conquest of the interior. Fourth, it established Generaal van der Heijden as, in Van Heutsz’s catalogue, the winnaar van Groot-Atjeh (conqueror of Groot-Atjeh) — the governor who “met werkelijk rechtmatige voldoening” (with truly legitimate satisfaction) could issue the day-order and whose subsequent dismissal in early 1881 would be the onverantwoordelijke (irresponsible) act that, in Van Heutsz’s counter-factual, condemned the colony to another fifteen years of war: “ware hij niet in het begin van 1881 op onverantwoordelijke wijze ontslagen, dan behoorde de Atjeh-oorlog thans reeds lang tot het verledene” (had he not been dismissed in the beginning of 1881 in an irresponsible manner, then the Atjeh war would now long since belong to the past). The campaign also occasioned Van der Heijden’s second unilateral haven-sluiting (harbour-closure) — the telegram of 5 July 1879 to the Gouverneur-Generaal announcing that the harbours were again closed “ditmaal op eigene persoonlijke verantwoordelijkheid” (this time on his own personal responsibility) — and produced, with the Nota of 19 April 1880, the masterly policy document Van Heutsz would later single out as the lost alternative of the post-Van-der-Heijden decade.
See Also
- Van der Heijden
- XXVI Moekims
- XXV Moekims
- XXII Moekims campaign (1878)
- Selimoen tocht (1879)
- Day-order of 5 September 1879
- Kroeng Kali
- Tjot Lepong
- Djerir
- Kroeng Raba
- Indrapoeri
- Lamtoba
- Groot-Atjeh
- Scherer’s Nota (19 April 1880)
- 1879
Source
De onderwerping van Atjeh, door J. B. van Heutsz, Majoor der Infanterie, gewezen Chef van den Staf in Atjeh en Onderhoorigheden. ‘s-Gravenhage: De Gebroeders Van Cleef; Batavia: G. Kolff en Co., 1893, esp. pp. 18, 22–24. OCR-filename: 20260718_105749_DLP-107-De_onderwerping_van_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt.