| Battle of Fundina | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part ofMontenegrin–Ottoman War (1876–1878) | |||||||
 Depiction of the Battle of Fundina | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Montenegro |  Ottoman Empire | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Mahmud Pasha | |||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 4,100[2] | 50,000[2] or 40,000[3] | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 279 | More than 10,000[3] | ||||||
TheBattle of Fundina took place on 2 August 1876 in Fundina, a village inKuči,Principality of Montenegro.[3] The day had a religious importance, as being theSt. Elijah's Day (Eastern Orthodoxcalendar).
The Montenegrin Army was led by the two Montenegrinvoivodes (or dukes)Ilija Plamenac, who had 2,100 men under his command, andMarko Miljanov, who had 1,800 men all of which were from the Kuci tribe.[4] The Ottomans had a total strength of 40,000. Days before the battle, aMontenegrin Muslim, Mašo-Hadži Ahmetov revealed the Ottoman plans to Marko Miljanov, and thus theMontenegrins knew where the attack was going to come from.[3]
Marko informed Ilija Plamenac about the plan of the Ottomans, who immediately came toKuči upon invitation. The two voivodes agreed to invite all Montenegrin voivodes and officers to Kuči, after which they gathered the army. In Fundina, the Turks were faced by the battalions of several Montenegrin tribes at that time, like Kuči, Martinići,Bratonožići,Ceklin, Ljubotinja and others. Around two hundred soldiers from Zatrijepac also came to the aid of the Kuči. The Turkish army at Kuči was led byMahmud Pasha, whose arrival was preceded by the dismissal of Ahmed Hamdi Pasha. Mahmud Pasha led a regular Turkish army to Fundina.[3]
On August 2, 1876, the dawn broke, in which the deployed guards of Montenegrin soldiers in Fundina awaited the enemy. At dawn, Turks were advancing towards them. Most of them were coming from the direction ofPodgorica andDinoša; reportedly, no single Turkish soldier was moving towards Kuči from Albanian territory. Otherwise, if they had, there would have been a good man in Albania to inform about the Turkish plans for Kuci. Advancing towards Fundina, the Turkish army was building fortifications. They planned to attack Kuči on the third of August, so the defense had to get ahead of the Turks.[3]
The Ottoman army was well armed with rifles, sabers, and dervish axes, while the Montenegrin army was poorly armed withyatagans,[a] flintlock pistols and a small number of flintlock rifles and numbered only about five thousand soldiers.[3]
Reportedly, Marko Miljanov climbed onto the observation post, took off hisMontenegrin cap, placed it on his chest and said:
“Here, God, let me pray to you one more time and I will not bother you anymore.”[3]
The Ottomans advanced from the Southwest towards Kuči, planning their final attack for 3 August, but since Montenegrin commanders knew of their plans, they counterattacked a day before. Reportedly, around 13:00, the Montenegrin army attacked the Turks, who intended to sleep that night and attack Kuči rested. A battle was fought at the foot of the Heljam hill. Above Fundina, a great roar and the clash ofkhanjars could be heard.[3]
Most of the fighting occurred at the foot of Heljam hill, where the Ottomans were defending from the trenches. While Marko Miljanov was in the front lines, Ilija Plamenac was commanding theMontenegrin army from the back, developing a strategy. In the Rašović Kuča tower, they imprisoned and burned the Turkish agas and beys. According to the legend, which is still told today, when viewed from the direction of Podgorica, while the tower was burning, various colors rose to the sky. Now there is a memorial at that place. Supposedly, there are still ditches built of stone from that period throughout Fundina. Until recently, when plowing the fields, villagers would find buried heads, which were buried shallowly in small wooden boxes at that time.[3]
The rest of the Montenegrins chased the remaining Ottomans southward towardsĆemovsko polje and Dinoša, forcing them into a fast retreat. The exact number of Montenegrin casualties is unknown, but it is certain that theCeklin battalion suffered the greatest losses. The most successful part of the Montenegrin Army was theMartinići battalion, which killed 2,000 Ottomans via decapitation and captured 6 enemy flags. The pennant Novak Milošev Vujošević cut off 17 Turkish heads with his dagger. From the Russian emperor, the hero Novak Milošev, from theKuči tribe, received a yatagan with jewels, on which it is written, "Whoever fights, I cut him down, and whoever does not, I leave him."[3]
The importance of this Montenegrin victory was that it stopped the Ottoman advance and secured the Montenegrin victory during the first half of theMontenegrin–Turkish War of 1876–1878.[3]
At the mills under Fundina, the voivodes Ilija Plamenac and Marko Miljanov met to congratulate each other on the victory. The Montenegrin army, exhausted from the battle, gathered on the hill and under the hundred-year-old elms next to the numerous spring waters in the villages of Premići, Rašovići, and Ljuhari. The soldiers fromMalissori (also known as Malësia) who helped the Montenegrins in this battle congratulated the Kuči on the decoration, which King Nikola Petrović presented to them in front of his army, and congratulated them on the second of August.[3]
On August 3, 1876, Marko Miljanov gathered his army at Rano Brdo in the village of Rašovići in Fundina to count the dead and wounded fighters. Of all the Montenegrin battalions, the Ceklin had the most killed and wounded. The number of Turks killed was over ten thousand, or twice the number of Montenegrin soldiers who defended Kuči.[3]
After the battle, Marko Miljanov sent a "gift" toMahmud Pasha—a live wolf captured during the battle, symbolizing Montenegrin pride and freedom. After the battle at Fundina, the Montenegrin army paid tribute to Duke Marko Miljanov by giving him the most beautiful Turkish saber seized from the battle and the house inMedun, where the Turkish court had operated before the battle, which is today a museum. The army gaveserdar Škrnje Kusovac a horse that a Turkish officer rode into battle with. After the battle, theKuči clan was awarded a medal for bravery byKing Nicholas I.[3]
Many Montenegrins broke the seized flintlock rifles after the battles. This was because the Turks had hidden gold coins in them, which led to many of them being found by the Montenegrins. The rifles themselves were of great value because they were richly decorated with gold, silver and nacre. According to the memories of the fighters from the Battle of Fundina, Marko Bojov Rašović, an officer in the army of King Nikola, from the village of Rašovići in Fundina, made a military map that depicts the strategy of the war at that time.[3]
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