СНАБДИЈЕВАЊЕ УСТАНИКА У БОСНИ 1875–1878.
SUPPLY OF TROOPS IN 1875–1878 BOSNIAN UPRISING

Summary/Abstract: The paper brings information on the part of the rebel life dealing with daily 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, c orn, 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.

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