Battle of Valea Albă The Battle of Valea Albă or Battle of Războieni or Battle of Akdere was an important event in the medieval history of Moldavia . It took place at Războieni , also known as " Valea Albă " , on July 26 , 1476 , between the Moldavia n army of Ştefan cel Mare and an invading Ottoman army which was commanded personally by the Sultan Mehmed II . Background . In 1475 the Ottoman ' s attempt to bring Moldavia under their control , at winter by using an army of Rumelian local levies , ended disastrously with a defeat in the Battle of Vaslui . During the proper military campaign season , the Ottomans assembled a large army under the command of the Sultan , Mehmed II and entered Moldavia in June 1476 . Meanwhile groups of Tartars from the Crimean Khanate ( the Ottomans ' recent ally ) were sent to attack Moldavia . Romanian sources may state that they were repelled . Other sources state that joint Ottoman and Crimean Tartar forces " occupied Bessarabia and took Akkerman , gaining control of southern mouth of Danube . Stephan tried to avoid open battle with the Ottomans by following a scorched - earth policy . " In the process the Moldavians forces ended up being dispersed throughout the country , leaving only a small force of about 12 - 20 . 000 men , led by Ştefan cel Mare himself , to face the main Ottoman attack . The battle . The battle began with the Moldavians luring the main Ottoman forces into a forest that was set on fire , causing some casualties to the attacking Ottoman army in the forest . According to another battle description , the defending Moldavian forces repelled several attacks with steady fire from hand - guns . The attacking Ottoman Janissaries were forced to crouch on their stomachs instead of charging headlong into the defenders positions . Seeing the imminent defeat of his forces , Mehmed charged with his personal guard against the Moldavians , managing to rally the Janissaries , and turning the tide of the battle . Ottoman janissaries penetrated inside the forest and engaged the defenders in man - to - man fighting . The Moldavian army was utterly defeated ( casualties were very high on both sides , and the chronicle s say that the entire battlefield was covered with the bones of the dead , a probable source for the toponym ( " Valea Albă " is Romanian and " Akdere " Turkish for " The White Valley " ) . Aftermath . Ştefan cel Mare retreated into the north - western part of Moldavia or even into the Polish Kingdom and began forming another army . The Ottomans were unable to conquer any of the major Moldavian strongholds ( Suceava , Neamţ , Hotin ) and were constantly harassed by small scale Moldavians attacks . Soon they were also confronted with starvation , a situation made worse by an outbreak of the plague . Meanwhile anti - Ottoman forces were being assembled in Transylvania under Stephen V Báthory ' s command , assisted by Ştefan ' s presumed cousin Vlad III Dracula ; confronted with this army and with Ştefan ' s counterattack the Ottomans retreated from Moldavia in August 1476 . In fiction . In the Romanian theatrical play " Apus de Soare " by Barbu Ștefănescu Delavrancea ( set in the final year of Ştefan ' s reign ) , one can find a description of the battle in the form of a dialog between the daughters and widows of the boyars who had fallen in the battle , in which they describe how their respective fathers and husbands had to drag Ştefan out of the battle , as he desperately tried to keep fighting .