Longbatah Zuid (Longbatah South) was a Dutch fortified post south of kampong Longbatah in the XXV Moekims of Groot-Atjeh, a work standing since before the offensive of 26 December 1875 and built to correct the defects of the earlier posts of Longbatah-Mesigit and Blang Tjoet.
The work
The fortification had considerable dimensions — laid out for two companies, its southern and northern faces 64 and 74 metres, its eastern and western 70 and 64. The northern face was palisaded with coconut trees; every other face had an earth breastwork with ditch, and obstacles were made everywhere. The single bastion stood at the southeast salient; the gun placed on it had served to fire on the enemy’s old position at Lo-ong.
The lightly wooded ground at the east and west faces and the trees of the kampong were partly cut to open the view; the work stood moreover in sawahs except near its north face, where a nipah swamp ringed it — a natural abatis, partly cut and completed by the lengthening of the east and west faces, and used as emplacement for the outbuildings.
Purpose and reduction
The work’s purpose was to remedy the defects of the old posts of Longbatah-Mesigit and Blang Tjoet; but after the hostile line of the Imam of Longbatah was abandoned in February 1876 and the Dutch fortified line pushed far forward, Longbatah Zuid lost its value and was kept only to shelter the garrison working at the building of the post at Lo-ong, the demolishing of the abolished works Lohong Northeast, Southeast and South, and the building of a road through the rawah north of Lo-ong. Soon after March 1876 its garrison was reduced to one section of infantry; the fortification did not exist much longer. In March of that year the bivouac of the relief column of Lieutenant-Colonel Meijer stood there the night before the storming of Lambaroe, in the hospital and quarters of Major Lubeck’s still-stationed left half of the 5th battalion.
See Also
Source
Atjeh van 26 December 1875 tot 4 September 1876, door H. F. Meijer (Breda: P. B. Nieuwenhuijs, 1883), chapters I (p. 24), IV (p. 68) and VI.