Setee was an Atjehnees kampong west of K. Radja between Soerian and the western arc of the Dutch perimeter, repeatedly listed among the objectives of the battle of 26 July 1874 and finally conquered in April 1875 in the closing operations that completed the stelling-Pel. It is mentioned together with Lamteboe, Gitjiel and Lohong as one of the kampongs west of K. Radja whose conquest “cost fresh bloody sacrifices.”
Operations in 1874
Pel’s orders for the battle of 26 July 1874 named Setee among the kampongs to be conquered: Soerian, Poengej Blang Tjoet, Poe Oe and Setee. The aim was to gain a forward line protecting the Marassa area and the K. Radja–Oeleh Leh communication, bring Bital and Lamtermin under observation, and threaten the flank and rear of Toekoe Nanta of the VI Moekims. On the day itself the Dutch failed to take Soerian outright — though they killed some 70 of the enemy in a surrounded benteng — but in the days following the Atjehneezen abandoned all their western positions and the magnificent sawah (irrigated rice fields) stretching to the edge of Bital and Ketapang Doewa fell into Dutch hands. Setee was, however, evidently reoccupied by the enemy, for it appears again as a target of the conquest of Mandarsa Poeti of 28 January 1875, when one of the converging columns moved on Setee to cover the right flank of the main attack on the stone gebedenhuis.
The final conquest
Setee was finally conquered in April 1875 in the same series of operations that took the fortified kampong Lohong — “an extremely important point” — by surprise and brought the whole sawah south of Longbatta into Dutch hands. Westward, the kampongs Setee, Lamteboe and Gitjiel were conquered and occupied “at cost of fresh bloody sacrifices.” With Setee in Dutch hands, the continuous line around K. Radja could be completed. By early May 1875 the south side of the stelling-Pel ran from Oedjoeng Plungan through Soerian, Poe Oe, Poengej Blang Tjoet, Lamteboe, Setee, Lamara Olejlo, Lohong, Longbatta Z. to Longbatta-Mesigit — a line whose completion allowed operations to be suspended or postponed, and on the strength of which Pel was granted three months’ leave on 12 June 1875 to recover his shattered health.
See Also
- Soerian
- Poe Oe
- Bital
- Ketapang Doewa
- Lamara Olejlo
- Longbatta-Mesigit
- Stelling-Pel
- Battle of Soerian (26 July 1874)
- Conquest of Mandarsa Poeti (28 January 1875)
- Generaal Pel
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 176–179, 202, 245, 263.