First Sumatran expedition

Part of the

U.S. Infantry assaulting the Acehnese forts at Kuala Batu in 1832

Date	6–9 February 1832
Location	Kuala Batee, Aceh Sultanate
Result	United States victory

Belligerents

United States

Netherlands

Chiefdom of Kuala Batee

Commanders and leaders

Commodore John Downes

Governor-General Johannes van den Bosch

Uleëbalang Po Muhammad

Strength

Land:
282 sailors and
marine infantry
Sea:
1 frigate

Land:
~500 warriors
5 forts
Sea:
3 proas

Casualties and losses

2 killed
11 wounded

~450 killed or wounded
5 forts destroyed
3 proas sunk

The First Sumatran expedition, which featured the Battle of Quallah Battoo (Aceh: Kuala Batèë, Malay: Kuala Batu) in 1832, was a punitive expedition by the United States Navy against the village of Kuala Batee (), presently a subdistrict in Southwest Aceh Regency. The reprisal was in response to the massacre of the crew of the merchantman Friendship a year earlier. The frigate Potomac and its crew defeated the local uleëbalang (ruler)'s forces and bombed the settlement. The expedition was successful in stopping Sumatran attacks on U.S. shipping for six years until another vessel was plundered under different circumstances, resulting in a second Sumatran expedition in 1838.

The island of Sumatra is renowned as an excellent source of pepper, and throughout history ships have come to the island to trade for it. In 1831, the American merchantman Friendship under Captain Charles Endicott had arrived off the chiefdom of Kuala Batu in order to secure a cargo of pepper. Various small trading boats darted back and forth along the coast trading pepper with the merchant ships waiting offshore. On 7 February 1831, Endicott and a few of his men went ashore to purchase some pepper from the natives when three proas attacked his ship, murdered Friendship's first officer and two others of her crew, and plundered its cargo.

Endicott and the other surviving members of his crew managed to escape to another port with the assistance of a friendly native chief named Po Adam. There they enlisted the help of three other merchant captains who agreed to help him recover his vessel. With their help, Endicott managed to retake his ship and eventually sailed back to Salem, Massachusetts. Upon reaching Salem there was a general public outcry against the massacre and in response President Andrew Jackson dispatched the frigate USS Potomac under Commodore John Downes to punish the natives for their treachery.

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