Boekit Seboen — written in Dutch as also Bt. Seboen, B. Seboen, Seboen — was a hill with a fortification in the IV Moekims of Teuku Umar, forming an enemy stelling that had been restored by Umar. As described in Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96, Boekit Seboen was attacked and patrolled from 23 May to 25 May 1896 in the course of the three-day Dutch offensive, was occupied by the peloton of Jhr. Sandberg on the night of 25 May 1896, and was the object of a maréchaussée rush on 4 June 1896. The hill formed the northern anchor of Umar’s defensive stelling across the IV and VI Moekims and was bombarded by the marine on 25 May and 4 June–5 June 1896 together with the kampongs of Lamlon, Lambaroe (IV Moekims context), and Naga Oembang.
Description and Location
Boekit Seboen lay in the IV Moekims of Teuku Umar between the kampong of Lam-Poelau on the south and the coastal landschap of Lepong on the north-west. The hill had a fortification on its top that had been restored by Umar and formed the northern anchor of his defensive stelling across the IV en VI Moekims. The hill overlalsoed the coastal plain of Lepong to the west and the kampongs of Lam-Poelau, Lam-Tiroeng, and Daman to the south. The hill was bounded on the east by the valley of Beradin and on the west by the sea-coast of Lepong. The hill was in the immediate neighbourhood of the kampong of Lam-Poelau, where the Dutch had formerly maintained a versterking on Bt. Seboen.
Historical Background
Boekit Seboen had been the site of a former Dutch fortification associated with the kampong of Lam-Poelau — a Dutch post in the IV Moekims. After the defection of 29 March 1896 the hill was occupied and fortified by Umar, who restored the old versterking and made it the northern anchor of his defensive stelling across the IV and VI Moekims. The IV Moekims people were said to have stored goods in Lam-Lehoem, Lam-Baroe, and Boekit Seboen, suggesting that the hill was used as a depot as well as a defensive position. The bombardment of Boekit Seboen by the marine together with the kampongs of Lamlon, Lambaroe (IV Moekims context), and Naga Oembang indicates the strategic importance of the hill in the Dutch perception.
Role in the 1896 Operations
Boekit Seboen was attacked and patrolled from 23 May to 25 May 1896 in the course of the three-day Dutch offensive. The hill was bombarded by the marine on 25 May 1896 together with the kampongs of Lamlon, Lambaroe (IV Moekims context), and Naga Oembang. On the night of 25 May 1896 the peloton of Jhr. Sandberg occupied the hill, and the Dutch thereby gained control of the northern anchor of Umar’s stelling. On 4 June 1896 the maréchaussée rushed to occupy Boekit Seboen in the course of the two-colonne operation into the IV and VI Moekims. On 20 June 1896 Dutch troops were left at Boekit Seboen as a forward observation post. The hill served as a key reference point for Dutch operations in the IV and VI Moekims throughout June 1896.
Significance
Boekit Seboen was the northern anchor of Teuku Umar’s defensive stelling across the IV and VI Moekims and the principal Dutch observation post over the coastal landschap of Lepong. Its occupation by the Dutch on the night of 25 May 1896 and again on 4 June 1896 marked the effective destruction of Umar’s northern defences and opened the way for the marine bombardments of Lepong. The hill’s bombardment together with the kampongs of Lamlon, Lambaroe (IV Moekims context), and Naga Oembang indicates the Dutch perception of the hill as a key target in the campaign to break Umar’s power.
Account from H. F. Meijer (1883) — the only post of the IV Moekims
Meijer gives Boekit Seboen as the only Dutch post that existed in the IV Moekims at the end of March 1876, planted on the middle and lowest of the three small hills Seboen, Poelat and Lamtjong at the entrance of the ravine of Beradin. The Dutch fort was built on the basis of an old Atjehnese earthen fort found on the plateau: an old rectangular enclosure whose sides of 54 and 40 metres answered exactly to modern need, on which two round bastions were traced. The first garrison — a company of Africans with some sappers and forced-labourers — lay on the stony ground that carried only alang-alang grass among weathered granite clumps; and the first small bamboo-thorn hedge did not thrive at all. Because the district had submitted voluntarily, the commander had strictly forbidden harm to the people of the district, so the post had to buy its materials of the population.
His account gives the officer’s names for its use in these years: the post commander dared not come out from domicile without the district civil officer, who lodged in the fort; Toekoe Lampasei made it his residence to come into closer contact with his moekims; and the district’s patrols — to the borders of the mountains and to Kroeëng Raba — left from it, with the 1 June–3 June March of Major Voigt also taking it as base for the search for Toekoe Tjihiq Lamngga. The difficult 3,600-metre mud road from Pakan Badak to it took his columns three hours.
Account from Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk (1886)
Verstege records from the Koloniaal Verslag that Boekit Seboen was the first-named of the posts evacuated in succession between 12 and 28 February 1885 at the execution of the concentration (see Completion of the concentrated position (March 1885)).
See Also
- Three-day Dutch offensive of 23–25 May 1896
- Operations in IV and VI Moekims (4–5 June 1896)
- Marine Bombardment of Lepong (25 May, 4–5, 8–9 June 1896)
- Teuku Umar
- Jhr. J. C. C. Sandberg
- Lam-Poelau
- Lam-Tjroeng
- Beradin
- Lepong
- IV en VI Moekims
- 1896
Source
ATJEH ‘96, door A. Kruisheer, Kapitein der Infanterie O.I.L., met 2 kaarten en 4 portretten (Weltevreden: N.V. Boekhandel Visser & Co, 1913). Instituut Kern, Leiden. OCR-filename: 20260715_163243_DLP-89-Atjeh_96_Met_2_kaarten_en4_DOORA_KRUISHEER_Kapiteinder_Infanterie_nemoretriever-ocr-v1_OCR.txt, pp. 145, 148, 167, 181, 191, 195, 209, 213, 225, 227–230, 233, 319, 321.
Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk in zake het Atjeh-vraagstuk, door J. J. W. E. Verstege (Amsterdam: J. H. de Bussy, 1886), p. 82. OCR: DLP-158.