Combat· Sumatra Expeditions
Bombardment of Quallah Battoo
The naval phase of the first American military action in the East Indies, a reprisal for the plunder of an American merchant ship and the murder of part of her crew.
The frigate USS Potomac under Commodore John Downes was sent to punish the Malay rajahs of Quallah Battoo on the Sumatran coast. At dawn on 7 February the landing party, Marines under Lieutenant Edson in the advance, alongside sailors, stormed the town's fortified strongholds in two hours of hard fighting, taking the forts one by one against desperate resistance. The next day the Potomac stood inshore and bombarded the town from about a mile out, the ship's Marines at their stations, breaking the last resistance. Downes ceased fire to give the chiefs time to reflect, and they sued for peace the following day. The expedition was the United States' first armed intervention in Asia.
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Record no. 299