Majoor J. Visser was a Dutch major of infantry in Atjeh in 1875–1876, commanding the left half of the 6th Infantry Battalion and then the posts of Biloel, Atoë and Mesigit Pagar Ajer after the conquest of the XXV Moekims, with his station at Atoë. He appears in the official history of the war as the commander who first reported that the road between his posts and Boekit Daroe became daily more unsafe, and who watched his communications strangled by the enemy in February and March 1876.
In the enemy’s net, February–March 1876
When General Pel returned to Kota Radja on 7 February 1876, Visser’s three companies were left to hold the new line. Within days he reported that the road between his posts and Boekit Daroe became daily more unsafe and foresaw the moment at which communication would be cut entirely; with the troops at his disposal, busy on the half-finished posts, he saw no chance of keeping the ground clean. He was ordered to abandon the road by Boekit Daroe and to communicate only by the longer road along Kajoe-Lē, Lamsajoeng and Mesigit Pagar-Ajer.
It was from his post at Atoë, on the evening of 13 February, that he sent Pel the news of the destruction of Captain Van Swieten’s detachment — adding that he judged himself not strong enough, with his available troops, to drive the enemy off, and asking for speedy reinforcement. During Meijer’s Lambaroe operation in March his was one of the three major commands — with Mekern and Van Teijn — instructed to regulate patrols and transports along the restored line in mutual consultation, to continue the clearing of the terrain and to build the 3-metre road. On 21 March, as post commander of Atoë, he detailed the convoy of Lieutenant Van Heeckeren van Molecaten and sent, hearing the fight, 25 bayonets under Lieutenant Van Puffelen to the rescue during the convoy ambush; and on 22 March he became the first post commander of the new intermediate fortification of Atoë Noord, sited with the help of Captain F. C. E. Meijer — planted, as it proved, 500 metres too far west.
See Also
- Atoeh
- Zuidoosterlinie
- Convoy ambush near Atoë (21 March 1876)
- Night attack on Atoë Noord (22-23 March 1876)
- Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapters VI and VII.