Tongah was the kampong on the linker-oever (left bank) of the Kroeng Tjoet reached by Pel’s colonne on 23 February 1876 on the march northward from Pango toward the Kroeng Raya mouth and the sea. The bivouac was pitched at Lamjoeng between Tongah and Silang on the far side of the river, where Pel died in the night of 24 February 1876.
The march northward
On 22 February 1876 Pel marched from Pango northward via Lamkapang, Loeëng Iek, Poeklat and Oeleh Karang to the kampong Pinang, which was found abandoned, “in den rug genomen” — taken in the rear — as were all the earlier enemy versterkingen there. The troepen bivouaked that night at the Mesigit te Kajoe Adang. On 23 February 1876 the Langgoegoeb was doorgetrokken and Tongah on the linker-oever of the Kroeng Tjoet was bereikt. From Tongah the colonne crossed to the far side of the river, where the bivouac was pitched at Lamjoeng between Tongah and Silang. The march had been a continuous forward movement against an enemy who, after the winter offensive had broken his main line, could no longer stand in the field. Each enemy stelling was found abandoned as the Dutch approached.
Pel’s death at Lamjoeng
At the bivouac at Lamjoeng, on the far side of the Kroeng Tjoet between Tongah and Silang, Pel in the night of 24 February 1876 suddenly overleed at the gevolgen of a slagaderbreuk (ruptured artery). Borel’s elegy is one of the most quoted passages of the book: “Het vaderland verloor in hem een zijner trouwste, ijverigste en meest bekwame dienaren; dat verlies was in de gegeven omstandigheden bijna onherstelbaar en kon eene ware nationale ramp genoemd worden” — the fatherland lost in him one of its most loyal, zealous and most able servants; that loss was, in the circumstances, almost irreparable and could be called a true national disaster. Pel’s plan remained geheim — he had not communicated it even to his chef van den staf — and nothing about it was found in his archive. Lt.-kol. Engel, who had arrived at Lamjoeng with the 9de bataljon to versterk the ageerende troepen, assumed tijdelijk oppergezag as oudste hoofdofficier and continued the march via Tjade to Kwala Gigieng, bereikt on 26 February 1876.
See Also
- Kroeng Tjoet
- Kroeng Raya
- Kwala Gigieng
- Pango
- Lamjoeng
- Luitenant-kolonel Engel
- Generaal Pel
- Death of Generaal Pel (24 February 1876)
- Pel’s offensive against the VI, IV and IX Moekims (1875–1876)
Source
Onze vestiging in Atjeh, critisch beschreven, by G. F. W. Borel, Kapitein der Artillerie. ‘s-Gravenhage: D. A. Thieme, 1878. pp. 327–329, 336, 342–344.