First Sumatran expedition The First Sumatran expedition , which featured the Battle of Quallah Battoo , or Kuala Batee 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 and its crew defeated the local Raja ' 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 . Background . 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 Batee 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 February 7 , 1831 , Endicott and a few of his men went ashore to purchase some pepper from the natives when three proa s attacked his ship , murdered the " Friendship " s first officer and two other 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 under Commodore John Downes to punish the natives for their treachery . The Dutch expedition on the west coast of Sumatra of 1831 by the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army was in response to the incident , and served as an excuse to annex parts of the Aceh Sultanate . Battle . " Potomac " reached Kuala Batee on February 5 , 1832 . Here Downes met Po Adam who advised them that the local Raja s would in no way be partial toward paying compensation for the attack on the " Friendship " . Commodore Downes then decided to disguise his ship as a Danish merchantman in order to keep the element of surprise in his favor . The disguise worked so well that when a party of Malays boarded " Potomac " attempting to sell a cargo of pepper they were , much to their surprise , detained so as not to alert Kuala Batee of the real identity of " Potomac " . Downes then sent a reconnaissance party to scout out the defenses of the port , but this was repulsed by the Malays . In addition to the three proas in the harbor , at least five forts were found to be guarding the town with the majority of them near the coastline . Downes ordered a detachment of 282 marines and bluejacket s into the ship ' s boats , some of which had been equipped with a few of " Potomac " s lighter cannon . It was from these boats that the sailors and marines of " Potomac " burnt the Malay vessels in Kuala Batee ' s harbor and assaulted the town ' s forts while support from the guns of " Potomac " herself were used to suppress the fire coming from the Malay forts . The later - day musket s the Americans used were far superior to the outdated matchlock weapons of the Malays , but the natives fought fiercely and the fighting devolved into hand - to - hand combat in which one of the Rajas commanding the forts was killed along with about 150 other warriors . Only two Americans died during the attack and another eleven sailors and marines suffering injuries . After the coastal forts fell , the remaining Malays fled toward the rear of the town where another fort lay , but instead of engaging the last remaining fort the Americans attacked the town itself . Large scale looting and pillaging occurred with a range of plunder being looted from the town as well as many civilians slain . Downes later ordered his men to return to the ship and bombarded the fifth fort as well as the town until its surviving leaders agreed to surrender , killing another 300 natives in the process . Aftermath . The remaining Rajas begged for mercy and Downes informed them that if any American ships were attacked again the same treatment would be given to the perpetrators . Other rajas from nearby states also sent delegations to the ship pleading that Downes spare them from the same fate as Kuala Batee . Downes left the area to continue his journey eventually circumnavigating the globe , stopping at Hawaii and entertaining that nation ' s king and queen aboard his vessel . Although some criticism arose from the fact that Downes did not attempt to negotiate a settlement by peaceable means , the general public was satisfied with his response and no action was taken against him . The troubles with Kuala Batee were not over though and in 1838 another ship was massacred and true to Downes ' word the Second Sumatran expedition under George C . Read bombarded Kuala Batee and attacked the village of Muckie .