Bisschoff van Heemskerk was a Dutch overste (colonel) of the Nederlandsch-Indisch Leger who, in early March 1896, was the newly-installed post-commandant of Anagaloeng — the temporary post in the XXII Moekims of Groot-Atjeh whose siege was one of the principal engagements of the spring 1896 crisis. He is named in the Atjeh-Album of 1896 as the officer who, on his installation as commandant, found it noodig (necessary) to put an end to the Atjehnese annoyance from the band that had been shooting at the post for some two weeks — and who accordingly ordered the patrol of 7 March 1896 under Captain van Blokland.
The decision to send the patrol
The Atjeh-Album records that the immediate occasion of the patrol of 7 March 1896 was the shooting of Lieutenant Franson — who had been felling trees in the neighbourhood of the post and had received a bullet in his body — together with the general harassment of the post by a band of Atjehnese who had, sedert een paar weken (for some two weeks), been op hun gemak (at their ease) shooting at everyone they could hit. The album characterises Bisschoff van Heemskerk’s decision as the response of a newly-installed post-commandant who found it necessary to put an end to the annoyance — and the patrol of 7 March 1896 was the response.
The aftermath of the patrol
The Atjeh-Album records that the patrol of 7 March 1896 — although it had been intended as a punitive expedition against the Atjehnese band — became itself the occasion of an Atjehnese attack on the relief column, in which Lieutenant Westendorp was mortally wounded and Captain Van Blokland and several other officers were wounded. The engagement was the first major action of the 1896 crisis, and it was followed, in the next two months, by the sieges of the temporary posts at Anagaloeng, Senelop, Biloel and Lamkoenjit and by the relief expeditions of April 1896.
Significance
Bisschoff van Heemskerk’s significance in the documentary record of the Atjeh-oorlog is as the post-commandant whose decision to send the patrol of 7 March 1896 opened the spring 1896 crisis. His appearance in the Atjeh-Album of 1896 is brief, but it establishes the chain of command at the post of Anagaloeng in the early days of the Toekoe Oemar defection crisis, and it identifies the immediate tactical occasion of the patrol — the shooting of Lieutenant Franson — that would, in turn, produce the first Dutch officer fatality of the spring.
See Also
- Anagaloeng
- Patrol of 7 March 1896 near Anagaloeng
- Van Blokland
- Franson
- K. H. Westendorp
- Toekoe Oemar’s defection (1896)
- Aceh War
- 7 March
- 1896
- Atjeh-Album (Eigen Haard, 1896)
Source
Atjeh-Album van Eigen Haard, uitgave van de N.V. Het Tijdschrift “Eigen Haard”, Amsterdam, 1896, p. 8 (De Poeassa — Atjehers en Kafirs — Anagaloeng — Eindelijk Ontzet).