The 1e Bataljon barisan van Bangkallang (1st barisan battalion of Bangkallang — Bangkalan, in western Madura) was a battalion of the barisan, the native auxiliary troops of the Netherlands Indies Army, whose men served in Atjeh during the period December 1875 – September 1876. Part of its cadre was European; its soldiers were Madurese, described by H. F. Meijer as the least drilled and disciplined of the infantry on the terrain of war.
Service in 1876
In the Voigt expedition of 1–3 June 1876 into the IV Moekims the battalion supplied the mass of the column: 200 Madurese non-commissioned officers and men under 8 Madurese officers with 5 European officers — the troops of whom Major Voigt, offered a night march by his guide, declined because of their limited steadiness in the dark, a decision Meijer expressly praised.
It was also a Madurese second lieutenant of this battalion, Raden Ario Setjo Negoro, who commanded the escort of the medical officer Dr. Döring in the ambush of 28 July 1876: his company — 1 Madurese sergeant, 1 corporal, 1 bugler and 13 fusiliers of the barisan with European and native infantry — was the greater part of the detachment that stood the enemy charge, rallied at the doctor’s call and joined in the counter-charge. The same battalion thus supplied Meijer with both his stock example of the barisan’s limitations and the names of those who made his exceptions.
See Also
- Barisans
- Bataljon barisan van Soemenēp
- Raden Ario Setjo Negoro
- Voigt expedition to the IV Moekims (1-3 June 1876)
- Ambush between Kota Alam and Oleh Karang (28 July 1876)
- Guerilla warfare in Groot-Atjeh
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapter VII, pp. 205, 209, 239–242.