In his fourteen letters written in the period of occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1878, Ivan Mankoč, a native of Trieste, describes the atmosphere in his military unit. This is not merely a description of a military routine but also his personal account of battles in which he fought and of his contact with a completely unknown land. His letters are fi lled with unease and distress as he fi nds himself in the fi ring line and with his attachment to his place of origin, Trieste, where his family (and subsequently he himself) played an important role in the local economy. His letters are eyewitness accounts of events, on which the views of historiography differ greatly from that of the author.