LA MARMORA, 14 maimo-ra, Alfonso Ferrero, MARQUIS OF, Italian general and statesman: b. Turin, 18 Nov. 1804; d. Florence, 5 Jan. 1878. He was educated at the Sardinian Military Academy, was advanced (1823) to lieutenant of artillery and (1831) captain. He distinguished himself in the war (1848) against Austria at the siege of Peschiera and was advanced to the rank of brigadier-general. In 1849 he suppressed the rebellion in Genoa and took the portfolio of Minister of War to thoroughly reorganize a disrupted army. In 1855 he commanded the Sardinian expedition ary forces to the Crimea. From 1856 to 1859 he was Minister of War and Marine and be came chief of the general staff on the outbreak of war with Austria. After the treaty of peace of Villa-Franca he again became Minister of War and Marine (1860). Late in 1861 he be came first prefect at Naples and showed ener getic action against the movements of Gari baldi and of the Camorra. He headed (1864) the cabinet, after the Turin troubles, as Min ister of Foreign Affairs and carried out the September convention with France. In 1866 he
concluded a trade treaty with Germany and an alliance with Prussia, and when the war broke out he joined the king and army as chief of general staff. The unsuccessful plan of cam paign was his and he fell into great disfavor after the unfortunate battle of Custozza, resign ing his portfolio. He wrote much in defense of his military plans and after the death of his former adjutant and friend, Govone, he pub lished the dispatches of the Berlin (1866) mis sion in po-pia di Ince' (Florence 1873) to prove faithlessness and traitorous intent of the Bismarck policy. The denunciations of Bis marck and Prussia stopped him from issuing the second volume of the work, but he issued segreti di stato nel govern constitutions/1e' (ib. 1877) in self-defense. In 1891 a statue on horseback was erected in his memory at Turin. Consult Massari, 'II generale Alfonso di La Marmora> (Milan 1880) and a similar work by Chiala, general La Mar/n*0ra et l'Alli ance prussienne> (Paris 1878).