Major Cavaljé was a Dutch majoor of the Indische leger who led the failed storm on the Kraton on 1 April 1873 during the first Dutch expedition against Atjeh under generaal Köhler. In Borel’s account his is the name attached to the assault column that was repulsed with heavy loss and that cost Köhler his life outside the Kraton walls.
The Storm on the Kraton
The first Dutch expedition against Atjeh in April 1873 was conceived as a quick punitive blow. After landing on the strand, the Dutch column advanced directly upon the Kraton of the sultan. The assault was undertaken without proper reconnaissance of the formidable borstwering (earthen parapet), bamboe-doeri versperringen (bamboo-thorn barricades) and gracht (moat) that protected the sultan’s palace-fortress. Cavaljé’s stormcolonne was ordered forward against the walls. The Atjehneezen met the advancing Dutch with “moorddadig vuur” from the parapet and from concealed schietkokers; the column could gain no footing on the wall and was forced to retire with heavy loss. Köhler himself was struck down outside the Kraton, and with him perished the best chance of a quick Dutch success on the day. The repulse was total.
Significance
The failure of Cavaljé’s assault column decided the fate of the first expedition. The news “maakte een onuitsprekelijken indruk” in both Indië and Nederland; the entire Dutch nation became engaged with the war and demanded vengeance. The government was forced to plan a second, much larger expedition to restore Dutch prestige, “want door een tweede échec zou ons prestige in Indië geheel vernietigd zijn.” Borel treats Cavaljé’s repulse as the object lesson of what every subsequent Dutch commander in Atjeh — most of all van Swieten at the storming of the Mesigit of 6 January 1874 — ought to have learned: that the Atjehneezen, “uit eene geheel bijzondere stof gekneed,” would yield only to a properly prepared assault, and never to a frontal attack “tegen alle Indische traditiën in.”
Sources
De verovering van Atjeh’s groote Missigit by J.F.D. Bruinsma, Sneek, 1889, pp. 13, 58-59.
See Also
- First Aceh Expedition (April 1873)
- Storm on the Kraton (1 April 1873)
- Generaal Köhler
- Kraton of Atjeh
- Bamboe-doeri versperringen
- Jan van Swieten
- 1873
- First Conquest of the Great Missigit
- Second Conquest of the Great Missigit
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 9, 34, 70, 84.