Issue: Military Historical Review
SUPPLY OF TROOPS IN 1875–1878 BOSNIAN UPRISING
Authors:
Bratislav Teinović
The paper brings information on the part of the rebel life dealing withdaily struggle to keep the men fed and dressed during the 1875 to 1878
uprising in Bosnia. The fighters did not wear uniforms. Many of them wore
their traditional ethnic wear: Bosnian, Montenegrin, Herzegovinian,
Dalmatian, and Turkish. Some wore uniforms of Austrian frontiersmen.
Colonel Mileta Despotović decided to change this practice and ordered a
thousand new overcoats, jackets, pants and shoes in order to have his troops
dressed like Serbian army. During the campaign, the men would sleep in any
place that was safe. The food was scarce and not very nutritious. The maize
porridge, cooked until very dry, was the main food. In the days of celebration
of victory or on the family patron saint's day, the rebels would drink wine and
slaughter lambs and other cattle. Except for the maize porridge, the men
would sometimes have various kinds of beans. Sometimes, the troops were so
malnourished and poorly supplied they became depressed, which in turn
jeopardized the whole military operation. Organized plundering has almost
been made a rule since the day one of the uprising. Until colonel Despotović
came from Serbia to become a head commander, looters would regularly raid
Muslim villages to steal food from the villagers. They would take cattle, cheese
and other dairy, wheat, oat, corn, beans and other produce. Serb and Catholic
villages have not been spared either. When the food was in short supply, the
men went foraging for berries and mushrooms. They would drink wine and
plum schnapps, even beer could have been found in the Mrkonjić's camp. They
smoked tobacco and some of their commanders, like Mrkonjić, smoked
cigarettes.