Tjot Goeë — written in Dutch variously as Tjot Goeë, Tjot Goee, for the neighbouring hill, Tjot Goeë Tjoet, and Tjot Goë — was a Dutch post and key communication point in the sagi of the XXV Moekims, situated on a hill approximately 30 metres high, serving as the communication post between Lampeneroet and Biloel. As described in Kruisheer’s ATJEH ‘96, Tjot Goeë was favourably placed to influence the lower part of the IX Moekims (the mukims of Oleh Soesoe and Lamkoenjit) and the great pasar of Lamkoenjit, and was a repeated meeting point and reporting station for the various Dutch columns throughout the first semester of 1896. The post was the site of an 8 c.M. Brons gun (replaced by a 7 c.M. A. Veld on 12 April 1896), and the benteng Paja Krah of the imam of Lamkoenjit stood on the south-east side of the Tjot Goeë hill. A semi-permanent versterking was built there by the Dutch in June 1896.
Description and Location
Tjot Goeë lay in the sagi of the XXV Moekims on a hill approximately 30 metres high, on the road between Lampeneroet and Biloel. The post commanded the great pasar of Lamkoenjit and the lower mukims of the IX Moekims. The garrison in 1895 consisted of 2 officers, 52 infantry, 10 artillery, and 1 European hospital attendant. The post was armed with an 8 c.M. Brons gun (replaced by a 7 c.M. A. Veld on 12 April 1896). The neighbouring hill of Tjot Goee Tjoet (also Tjot Goeë Tjoet) was a separate feature. The benteng Paja Krah of the imam of Lamkoenjit stood on the south-east side of the Tjot Goeë hill. A semi-permanent versterking was built there by the Dutch in June 1896 as part of the reorganised Dutch line.
Historical Background
Tjot Goeë had been constructed as part of the buitenlinie to serve as the communication post between Lampeneroet (on the inner line) and Biloel (on the outer line), and to dominate the great pasar of Lamkoenjit. The post was the meeting-point and reporting station for the various Dutch columns operating in the XXV Moekims and the IX Moekims. On 9 May 1895 the post had been the base from which Majoor Van Bloemen Waanders’s column (4 officers, 132 bayonets, 2 sections bergartillerie, engineer detachment and ambulance) supported the legioen of T. Djohan in clearing the area. The 14 April 1894 commission had also been associated with the post.
Role in the 1896 Operations
Tjot Goeë was the principal Dutch communication and command post in the southern theatre throughout the first semester of 1896. On 8 April 1896 the relief column under Kolonel Stemfoort reported by telephone to the Regeeringscommissaris at Tjot Goeë at 11:07 AM; the post served as the forward command post for the relief of Biloel and Lamkoenjit. On 12 April 1896 the 8 c.M. Brons gun was replaced by a 7 c.M. A. Veld. On 13 April 1896 an supply attempt on Tjot Rang from Tjot Goeë failed. On 30 March 1896 three companies of the 3e Bataljon were sent to Tjot Goeë by steam tram at 2:15 PM and were reinforced by 2 sections of the 4e Bergbatterij at 5 PM. After the evacuation of the buitenlinie in April 1896 Tjot Goeë remained in Dutch hands as the forward post of the Geconcenteerde Linie (Concentrated Line). In June 1896 a semi-permanent versterking was built at Tjot Goeë, reflecting the post’s continued strategic importance. The benteng Paja Krah of the imam of Lamkoenjit on the south-east side of the Tjot Goeë hill was a target of Dutch operations.
Significance
Tjot Goeë was the principal Dutch command-and-communication post in the southern theatre of the Atjeh-oorlog in 1896, and the only post of the buitenlinie in the XXV Moekims to remain in Dutch hands after the evacuation of 12 April 1896. Its retention and fortification as a semi-permanent versterking in June 1896 reflected the Dutch policy of consolidating a forward defensive line from which to conduct the bombardment of Lampisang and the three-day offensive against Teuku Umar.
Account in Hooijer’s De verlaten posten in Groot-Atjeh (1897)
Tjot Goeë — written by G. B. Hooijer as Tjot Goe — was a Dutch military post erected on 8 August 1893 on the bare hills of the IX Moekims in Groot-Atjeh, the first of the outposts built beyond the geconcentreerde linie under the alliance with Toekoe Oemar, and the only one of the southern group that the Dutch resolved to retain as a permanent fortification after the crisis of 1895.
Situation
The hills on which the post stood lay in the IX Moekims, east of the IV Moekims and VI Moekims, on the flat, marshy valley floor of the Atjeh valley, between the southern side of the geconcentreerde linie and the steep mountain range that bounds the plain to the south behind Biloel. Hooijer’s opening plate showed these bare hills with the roofs of the post just visible and a road running along and over them.
Foundation
Neither the road nor the post existed when Toekoe Oemar first drove the Moslemin from the hills. The post was raised only on 8 August 1893, when the whole of the IX Moekims had been cleared of enemies by Oemar — one month before his submission to Dutch authority was accepted and the dignity of Panglima Prang Besar was conferred on him under the name Toekoe Djohan Pahalawan. The road was built when the garrison of Boekit Daroe, west of Tjot Goeë, was transferred to Biloel on 20 May 1894.
Transport and terrain
Hooijer used the plate of the road to explain the scale of the fortnightly vivres transport that moved along it. At one of the many small bridges over the muddy ditches and creeks cutting the terrain stood the advance party of the transport in the practical rather than picturesque clothing of the Indies soldier; some 150 metres behind, ox-carts loaded with rice showed above the alang-alang (coarse tall grass) grass; behind them came a crowd of coolies, partly hired Achehnese, carrying tandoes and provisions; and the long train, moving slowly under the burning Indies sun over the uneven and often muddy road, was closed by a rearguard, some of whose men at greater distance secured the rear against klewang attacks by prowling marauders.
Life in the benteng
The benteng of Tjot Goeë, Hooijer wrote, was very quiet and safe. Ladies and gentlemen from Kota Radja many times came out by small carriage to visit this point raised above the surrounding rice-fields, from whose seat on the left-hand bastion one had a pleasant view over a series of posts in the geconcentreerde linie.
The crisis of 29 March 1895
That state of affairs changed only on 29 March 1895, when three companies sent out from the geconcentreerde linie to protect the post against kwaad volk gathering in the IX Moekims were heavily fired upon. From that date the benteng remained surrounded by the enemy until it was relieved on 9 April 1895.
Retention as a permanent strongpoint
When the two more southerly posts, Lam Koenjit and Biloel, were lifted four days later, it was decided to keep a permanent fortification garrisoned at Tjot Goeë, om te voorkomen dat de vijand er weder een tweede Kaloet zou oprichten — to prevent the enemy from erecting a second Kaloet there. The other two posts went up in flames while the Dutch troops hastened back over the muddy fields in which, for almost three years, they had endured with resignation all the misery of a temporary station.
The patrol of 29 March 1896
On the afternoon of 29 March 1896, after the defection of Teukoe Oemar, Kapitein Schadée marched from Biloel towards Tjot Goeë with sixty men to establish the state of affairs, and his point came under heavy fire across the flooded rice-fields north of Biloel; Luitenant Zijdveld was shot through the lower jaw and the patrol fell back. Water for the mud-bound post of Lam Koenjit had until then been carried from Tjot Goeë.
See Also
- Geconcenteerde Linie
- buitenlinie
- 14 April 1894 Commission
- Legioen van T. Djohan
- Lamkoenjit
- Biloel
- Lampeneroet
- Imam van Lam-Koenjit
- Majoor J. F. T. van Bloemen Waanders
- Relief of Biloel and Lamkoenjit (8 April 1896)
- 1896
- IX Moekims
- Lam Koenjit
- Boekit Daroe
- Kaloet
- Teukoe Oemar
- Geconcentreerde linie
- Kota Radja
- Vivres
Sources
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. 14, 21–24, 26–28, 30, 32, 35, 39–40, 47–51, 56–57, 60–64, 67, 73–75, 77–82, 290, 321–322, 335.
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. 9-12, 14, 16-18.
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.