[2][3] As Principality of Serbia gained its autonomy within the Ottoman Empire as a vassal state in 1830, a small Serbian Regular Army was established in order to protect the peace within its borders.

Prince Mihailo Obrenović (1860–1868), adopted a new Law on the National Militia, which included military service for men between the ages of 20 and 50 who were trained locally.

The construction of an army at lightning speed was accompanied by tremendous patriotic fervour: songs hailing Serbia's great military traditions; articles predicting an imminent revolutionary war which would sweep the Turks out of Europe and keep the Austrians at bay; and endless slogans.

In this respect, the militarization of Serbia, based on the peasantry, fostered a novel nationalist ideology in which the masses, and not just the bureaucratic elite, played a historic role.

[4][7] In 1876, units of the First Class were given state-issued uniforms (hats, coats, trousers and greatcoats) and were armed with breechloading rifles (mostly newer Peabody model 1870).

Units of the Second Class were supposed to be at least partially uniformed (hats and greatcoats), but in practice mostly wore their own civilian clothes: few were armed with older Green model 1867 breechloading rifles, but most had only Russian and Belgian percussion muzzleloaders.

Carl von Mayers, a German officer who spent the First Serbian-Ottoman War in the Ottoman headquarters in Niš on the main theatre of war (as a military correspondent), gave a detailed analysis of the Serbian militia's battle performance: he said the infantry was bad, the cavalry non-existent, and the artillery, on the contrary, very good:[8]The Serbian infantry must definitely be called bad.

How little the principles of discipline have taken root in the ranks of the Serbian troops is amply demonstrated by the fact that after every retreat of the Serbs the battlefield was covered with guns, overcoats, etc.

No matter how much the lack of training and discipline must be described as a fundamental evil of the Serbian infantry, just as little one cannot fail to recognize the appropriate leadership of smaller troop detachments.

We are unable to pass judgment on the Serbian cavalry, since they were neither used in combat during the war nor used in the exercise of the scouting service; However, this circumstance does not speak for the action power of this branch.