Valter Mărăcineanu

Who was Valter Mărăcineanu?

Nicolae Valter Mărăcineanu was a Romanian soldier. Entering the Land Forces as a volunteer Sergeant in 1858, he was promoted to 2nd Lieutenant in 1861 and Captain in 1868. He fought in the Romanian War of Independence, where he was part of the 8th Line Regiment, commanding its 1st Battalion. During the first of three assaults against the Grivitsa I redoubt of the defensive works of the Pleven fortifications, he shouted while at the head of his troops, "După mine, copii!". Holding his sword in one hand and a tricolor flag in another, he reached the citadel's edge, after which he fell into a ditch, riddled with bullets. Following the first retreat of the Romanian troops, the Ottoman soldiers guarding the redoubt took the bodies of Mărăcineanu and of Major Gheorghe Şonţu, sticking them as trophies onto the redoubt's parapet.

After the war, a street near Bucharest's Cişmigiu Gardens was named in honour of Mărăcineanu.