The Taman (also called Kota Goenoengan, “the fortified place of the sultan’s garden”) was the fortified pleasure-garden of the sultan of Atjeh south-west of the Kraton, the storming and taking of which on 12 January 12 January 1874 — on the advice of the Dutch ally Toekoe Nek — was the immediate prelude to the fall of the Kraton on 24 January 24 January 1874.
The Storming, 12 January 1874
After the taking of the missigit of the Kraton on 6 January 6 January 1874, letters were sent to Toekoe Nek of Marassa and to four other chiefs of the XXV Moekims. On 11 January 11 January 1874 Toekoe Nek held a secret meeting with the controller Kroesen, in which he promised to pay a visit to the supreme commander, and at the same time gave the advice that the Dutch should seize the Taman or Kota Goenoengan, the sultan’s fortified pleasure-garden south-west of the Kraton, in order to close the sultan off from the west side. Lieutenant-general Van Swieten, who had already vainly attempted to surprise the Kraton, decided to follow his advice.
On 12 January 12 January 1874 the Taman or Kota Goenoengan was stormed and taken. “Probably from resentment at this, the enemy made an attack on our bivouac at Penajoeng and the trench-guard. Although our guards were at first surprised, the attack was chiefly repelled by the gallant conduct of Captain Van Daalen.”
The Discovery of the Kraton, 24 January 1874
From Kota Goenoengan, between the brushwood, one saw a broken piece of wall with a watch-house behind it, largely stripped of its roof covering. From there Kota Goenoengan had been continually and sometimes rather heavily fired upon during the previous days. “But about 9 in the morning [of 24 January 1874] this fire slackened and soon ceased entirely. This led the supreme commander to suspect that the Kraton was not or only weakly occupied.” The reconnaissance that followed discovered that the Kraton had been evacuated, and the Dutch flag was hoisted to the strains of the Wilhelmus.
See Also
- Kraton of Aceh
- J. van Swieten
- Toekoe Nek Radja Moeda Setia
- E. C. van Daalen
- Kroesen (controller)
- Capture of the Kraton (24 January 1874)
- Second Aceh Expedition (1873-1874)
- Penajoeng
- Aceh War
Source
De geschiedenis van Nederland in onzen tijd, by J. A. de Bruyne, Directeur der Hoogere Burgerschool te Zierikzee. Deel IV. 1872-1883. Nieuwe uitgave. Schiedam: J. F. Dupont, 1912, Hoofdstuk I, pp. 22-24.