Senelop

Senelop was a Dutch temporary military post established in the XXII Moekims of Groot-Atjeh during the 1890s — a post that, together with Anagaloeng on its northern flank, formed the eastern anchor of the Dutch outer perimeter in the late concentratie period. The post was besieged by the forces of Toekoe Oemar after his defection in March 1896 and was the site of two of the seven officer fatalities of the spring 1896 crisis — those of Lieutenant Vuijk on 30 March 1896 and Lieutenant Zon on 19 April 1896. The post was finally evacuated on 17 April 1896, when the 1e Colonne of Lt.-Col. Van Heutsz lifted it in the heaviest fighting of the campaign — the Battle of Senelop — and the engineers of 1e Luit. Plantenga blew the bridge at Ana’ Galong to seal the western buitenlinie behind the retreating column.

Sennelop was one of the Dutch forward posts of Groot-Atjeh which, P. H. R. Beuming records, were razed in the spring of 1896 after their garrisons had been relieved, before the Beradin operation. Beuming names it with Lamsoet, Anak Galoeng, Lambarih, Biloel, Lamkoenjit, Kroeng Gloempang, Tjot Rang and Toengkoep and the blockhouses lying between them, adding that in the razing ook weer tal van verliezen aan onze zijde waren te betreuren — many losses on the Dutch side were again to be lamented.

The strategic position

The Atjeh-Album of 1896 records that Senelop was established in the XXII Moekims — the sagi of Groot-Atjeh that contained Indrapuri, Gleiêng, Montassik and Anagaloeng — and that it was, together with Anagaloeng, one of the principal temporary posts of the late concentratie period. The album’s narrative of the 1896 crisis places Senelop as the post whose commandant heard the rumour of the patrol of 7 March 1896 and hastened — with 40 men under lieutenants Westendorp and Ketjen — to relieve the patrol.

The siege of March-April 1896

The Atjeh-Album records that, after Toekoe Oemar’s defection in March 1896, the post at Senelop — together with that at Anagaloeng — was besieged by the forces of the defected warlord. The album’s narrative records that the besiegers bouwden tegenover onzen post te Lamreng het sterke Kaloet — built opposite our post at Lamreng the strong Kaloet — a reference to the Kaloet fortification that was the principal Atjehnese strongpoint of the late concentratie period. The siege of Senelop was, in the album’s chronology, the longest of the four sieges of the spring 1896 crisis — from March to April 1896.

The two officer fatalities

The Atjeh-Album’s roll of the fallen of the spring 1896 crisis records that Senelop was the site of two of the seven officer fatalities:

Lieutenant J. W. Vuijk — killed at Senelop on 30 March 1896
Lieutenant J. B. Zon — killed at Senelop on 19 April 1896

The two fatalities make Senelop the costliest single post of the spring 1896 crisis, and the post whose siege produced the heaviest drain on the Dutch officer corps. The album also records that Major Okhuysen and fifty subordinates were wounded in the verwoede gevecht dat om Senelop geleverd was — the fierce battle that was fought around Senelop.

The relief

The Atjeh-Album records that the post at Senelop was relieved by the column that had previously relieved Biloel and Lamkoenjit on 9 April 9 April 1896 and Anagaloeng on 18 April 18 April 1896. The relief of Senelop was the last of the four relief operations of April 1896, and it was followed by the dismantling of the post and the withdrawal of the garrison to the geconcentreerde linie.

The evacuation of 17 April 1896 (ATJEH ‘96 account)

As described in Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96, the abandonment of the western buitenlinie was completed in a single coordinated two-colonne operation on 17 April 1896. The 1e Colonne of Lt.-Col. Van Heutsz — with Chef van den Staf Kapt. Kronouer and the voorhoede under Kapt. Jhr. Graafland — was tasked with the opheffing (lifting) of Senelop and Lamsoet — the most exposed and most contested of the western posts. The 2e Colonne of Kol. Stemfoort was tasked in parallel with the opheffing of Anak-Galoeng and Lam-Barih.

Lam Soet was reached by the 1e Colonne at 8 a.m. without contact with the enemy, but the column then ran into a heavy enemy fortification extending to the Atjeh River, and the day became the Battle of Senelop — described by Kruisheer as “one of the heaviest days our troops experienced in 1896.” The 1e Colonne lost a 7 c.M. A. veld-gun, a 12 c.M. mortar, and a mitrailleur-chest with barrels; two artillery sergeants, Putman and Klaassen, died of overexertion. Enemy losses at Senelop were 75 killed (including Habib Lhong and Panglima Nja Bintang) and 88 heavily plus 80 lightly wounded.

The evacuation of the western buitenlinie on 17 April 1896 was the strategic nadir of the Dutch campaign in the first semester of 1896. Three years of patient construction — the posts, the bridges, the network of allied hoeloebalang (territorial chiefs) — had been undone in three weeks. Yet the evacuation also marked the moment at which the Dutch stopped trying to hold an indefensible line and began to concentrate their forces for the counter-offensive. Within five weeks the three-day offensive would be launched.

The demolition of the bridge at Ana’ Galong

As the two colonnes withdrew from the western buitenlinie on 17 April 1896, the engineers of 1e Luit. Plantenga — who had been attached to the 1e Colonne — blew the bridge at Ana’ Galong. The demolition was a deliberate act: the bridge, which had anchored the western line since the conquest of November 1893, was the principal crossing of the Atjeh River in the western theatre, and its destruction sealed the western line behind the retreating column. The Achehnese would have to rebuild the crossing before they could threaten the consolidated line — a small but real strategic gain in an otherwise bleak operation.

Additional ATJEH ‘96 account — garrison, siege, and 1896 operations

As described in Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96, Senelop was a Dutch outpost and barrier against the V Moekims Montassik, together with Kroeng Gloempang forming the eastern defensive line of the buitenlinie. Senelop was garrisoned in 1895 by 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 75 men, 1 medical officer, 1 hospital attendant, and 12 artilleristen (artillerymen), and was the main objective of Van Heutsz’s column on 17 April 1896. Senelop had been attacked on 23 February 1896 (5:30–6:30 AM) by 40–50 guns and again on 24 February 1896, was heavily shelled from Lam Bada from 15 April 1896, was conquered in early 1894 by the V Moekims Montassik operations, was retaken without opposition by maréchaussée and the 3e Bataljon at 9:10 AM on 2 May 1896 (after having been occupied by Panglima Polim’s volk), and was the site of the death of Habib Lhong on 19 April 1896.

Description and Location (ATJEH ‘96 account)

Senelop lay at the eastern end of the buitenlinie, with Kroeng Gloempang forming the barrier against the V Moekims Montassik. The Moekim Lam Djampoe of the V Moekims Montassik lay entirely within the Dutch post line. The garrison in 1895 consisted of 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 75 men, 1 medical officer, 1 hospital attendant, and 12 artilleristen. The post commanded the road from the V Moekims Montassik into the XXVI Moekims and protected the blokhuizen (blockhouses) of Aloer Oe and Toei Selimbing that lay forward of it. After the defection of 29 March 1896 the post was surrounded by enemy trenches.

Historical Background (ATJEH ‘96 account)

Senelop had been conquered in early 1894 by the V Moekims Montassik operations of the legioen (auxiliary legion) of T. Djohan and the Dutch supporting columns. The post had been constructed to act as a barrier against the hostile benden (war-bands) of the V Moekims Montassik and to dominate the road between the XXVI Moekims and the V Moekims Montassik. The blokhuizen of Aloer Oe and Toei Selimbing were forward extensions of the Senelop post, and the sergeant der artillerie son of the blokhuis Aloer Oe distinguished himself in the siege of 28 March–29 March 1896 by repairing the mitrailleur (machine gun) twice under fire.

Role in the 1896 Operations (ATJEH ‘96 account)

Senelop was attacked on 23 February 1896 (5:30–6:30 AM) by 40–50 guns and again on 24 February 1896. On 14 March 1896 Kapitein Reurts also command. On 28 March–29 March 1896 the forward blokhuizen of Aloer Oe and Toei Selimbing were besieged; the sergeant der artillerie son repaired the mitrailleur twice under fire and later safely brought the mitrailleur and 20,800 cartridges back to Senelop on evacuation. On 30 March 1896 the column of Van der Noordaa marched from Koeta Radja to relieve the blokhuizen, but at Lam Siti 1e luit. Vuijkk was killed by hostile salvos after mistaking a helmeted enemy unit for friendly troops (“Deze vergissing werd hem noodlottig” — this mistake cost him his life). On 31 March 1896 Senelop was heavily shelled: 7 of 15 enemy grenades from captured 8 cm bronze field guns hit, 2 inside the post (one in officers’ quarters, one in NCOs’ quarters). On 15 April 1896 Senelop began to be heavily shelled from Lam Bada. On 17 April 1896 Senelop was the main objective of Van Heutsz’s first colonne in the battle of Senelop, in which the friendly-fire incident at Anak Baté killed 6 European fusiliers of the Dutch side through the mountain battery of Lt. Hoolboom. Habib Lhong was killed at Senelop on 19 April 1896. On 2 May 1896 the diversionary operation to Montassik also the old post of Senelop without opposition by maréchaussée and the 3e Bataljon at 9:10 AM, after Panglima Polim’s volk had withdrawn.

Significance

Senelop’s significance in the documentary record of the Atjeh-oorlog is as the costliest single post of the spring 1896 crisis — the post whose siege produced two of the seven officer fatalities of the spring. Its relief on 18 April 18 April 1896 — together with that of Anagaloeng — was the last of the four relief operations of April 1896 according to the Atjeh-Album, and it was the moment at which the Dutch completed the recovery of their outer perimeter. In Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96 chronology, however, the post was lifted on 17 April 1896 as part of the coordinated evacuation of the western buitenlinie, and the day’s fighting at Senelop was the heaviest single day’s combat of the campaign. The discrepancy in dates between the two sources reflects the fluidity of the chronology in the spring 1896 crisis, and the difficulty of distinguishing between the relief of a post (its provisional reopening to communication) and its evacuation (its permanent abandonment and dismantling).

Account in Hooijer’s De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897)

Senelop was an Achehnese fortified position, afterwards a Dutch post, in Groot-Atjeh, defended by the sister of the late Habib Samalanga and fifteen other women who had devoted themselves to death, stormed by Toekoe Djohan on 12 March 1894, occupied by Dutch troops three days later, and relieved and lifted on 18 April 1896.

The storm of 12 March 1894

With Kroeng Gloempang at his back and supported by Dutch artillery, Toekoe Djohan advanced on 12 March 1894 against Senelop, waar de zuster van wijlen Habib Samalanga het bevel voerde en zich met 15 andere fanatieke vrouwen ten dood had gewijd — where the sister of the late Habib Samalanga held the command and had devoted herself to death with fifteen other fanatical women. The struggle he had to wage there was severe, and only when he placed himself at the head of his troops with his sunshade in his hand and ran in upon the fortification together with Toekoe Hoessin Longbattah, who waved a handkerchief, did he succeed in taking it. Three days later, on 15 March 1894, the position was occupied by Dutch troops.

Under fire

Senelop was a target for the enemy. Many times the Dutch unexploded granaatkartetsen came back at and into the fortification with filed-off ridges and a small bamboo tube with a fuse in place of the time-fuse, fired — Hooijer wrote — from old sawn-off iron cannon or, as it was said, from hollowed-out coconut trunks strongly bound about with stolen telephone wire.

Rifle fire cracked especially from the right-hand side, and for that reason an earthen wall was thrown up, visible on the following plate, to protect the going in and out of the benteng. To the left of that exit the kitchen lay within the enceinte (enclosing rampart), and above it projected the bastion armed with a gun and a mitrailleur; the other bastion, provided with the same pieces, lay on the right.

March 1896 and the end

On 7 March 1896 the liniecommandant (commander of the line) came from Senelop on hearing the heavy firing at Anagaloeng, taking up forty men from Lam Soet and Lambarih on the way, and relieved the mauled patrol of Kapitein Blokland.

This benteng, exposed to enemy fire — which resounded immediately after the people were seen running away from the rice-fields in front — remained occupied until on 18 April 1896 the columns came up which were to relieve it, together with Anagaloeng and Lambarih, and to lift it, after the surrounding population had ranged itself on the side of Toekoe Oemar, who had gone over to the Moslemin, and the blokhuizen in the neighbourhood had been burnt by the Dutch.

Account from Verstege’s Een beroep op het Nederlandsche volk (1886)

Verstege records from the Koloniaal Verslag that Senelop was evacuated between 12 and 28 February 1885, in (the) succession at the execution of the concentration (see Completion of the concentrated position (March 1885)).

Sources

Atjeh-Album van Eigen Haard, uitgave van de N.V. Het Tijdschrift “Eigen Haard”, Amsterdam, 1896, pp. 5, 8, 10, 25 (Toekoe Oemar — Zijn Verraad; De Poeassa — Eindelijk Ontzet; Een Terugblik — Wat Reeds Verkregen Werd; De Strijd om Kaloet).

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. 13–14, 22, 23–24, 26, 30–32, 35, 39–41, 43, 48, 50–57, 76, 82, 92–94, 100–106, 110–111, 113, 117, 119, 138, 144, 148–156, 244, 331.

Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh, met speciaal vervaardigde kaart en toepasselijke photo’s, bewerkt door P. H. R. Beuming, oud-onderofficier van het Ned.-Indische Leger (Amsterdam, December 1911; uitgegeven ten bate van het te stichten Herstellingsoord voor Rijks-Ambtenaren). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Br N 82-144

Acknowledgement of sources. The material in this article derives from Schetsen uit den strijd op Groot-Atjeh, met speciaal vervaardigde kaart en toepasselijke photo’s, bewerkt door P. H. R. Beuming, oud-onderofficier van het Ned.-Indische Leger (Amsterdam, December 1911). Dutch passages are quoted in the original with an English rendering.

De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh, door G. B. Hooijer, Gep. Luit.-Kolonel O. I. Leger, met 24 platen (Haarlem: De Erven F. Bohn; Batavia: G. Kolff & Co., 1897). Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen, Centrale Boekerij, Amsterdam. OCR-filename: 20260719_140140_DLP-134-De_verlaten_posten_in_Groot_Atjeh_Nemotron-OCR-v2_OCR.txt, pp. 53-54.

Acknowledgement of sources. This article is a single consolidated account combining the material previously held in this entry with the account given in De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897) by G. B. Hooijer. Dutch terminology has been rendered in English, the original Dutch being retained only in direct quotations and in bibliographic citations.

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.

tags	place, military-post, aceh-war, 1896, aceh, xxii-moekims, groot-atjeh, besieged-post, buitenlinie, evacuated-post, dutch, achehnese, colonial, benteng, xxvi-moekims
aliases	Sénélöp, Senalop, the post at Senelop, Lam Soet, Lam-Soet, Senclop, Sennelop, the fortification of Senelop, post Senelop

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