Reng-Reng was a kampong in the VII Moekims of the landschap Pedir, lying amid wildly overgrown mountains at a distance reckoned at three day-marches from Selimoen, which served on 14 August–15 August 1879 as the place of withdrawal of the last hostile chiefs of Groot-Atjeh before the converging Dutch columns of the Selimoen expedition, as recorded in W. Cool and G. B. Hooijer’s Eene schoone bladzijde uit Atjeh’s geschiedenis (1889).
The withdrawal of the chiefs, 14–15 August 1879
According to the information given by Toekoe Moeda Daud after his submission, his brother Massa-an, Panglima Polim, Toekoe Radja Koeala, the Iman Longbattah and other principal hostile chiefs had been gathered at Selimoen until the day before the Dutch arrival, deliberating in the missigit of the kampong on what was to be done. Seeing the impossibility of resisting the Dutch troops, they had withdrawn to Reng-Reng, in the VII Moekims of the landschap Pedir — a place, the book describes it, situated amidst wildly overgrown mountains, that the troops could first reach after three day-marches. The column-commandant, Overste Gerlach, seriously considered pursuing them thither on his own responsibility; but with the fatigue of troops and bearers, the great number of sick, a possibly insufficient stock of provisions, and the heavy return march to Lamtoba prescribed by the General’s orders, he abandoned the enterprise after protracted deliberation with his staff — “Wie weet welk beloop de geschiedenis van den Atjeh-oorlog … zou verkregen hebben, als de beslissing anders ware uitgevallen,” the authors reflected, thinking also of the disaster that later befell the arms at Batoe-Ilick among the strong mountain positions of Samalangan.
Later history
The chiefs who fled through Reng-Reng moved thereafter still further from the reach of the Dutch troops: other accounts of the dissolution of the resistance place them finally at Kemala, in the interior south of Pedir. The mountain path by which the vicinity of Lamtoba communicated with Pedir was reconnoitred, during the last days of the Lamtoba occupation, by the brigade chief of the Dutch survey party (G. B. Hooijer).
See Also
Source
Eene schoone bladzijde uit Atjeh’s geschiedenis, door W. Cool en G. B. Hooijer (‘s-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1889), pp. 57-58, 65. OCR-filename: 20260720_115822_DLP-135-Eene_schoone_bladzijde_uit_Atjeh_s_geschiedenis_Nemotron_OCR_v2_OCR.txt.