Alessandro Ferrero La Marmora (27 March 1799 – 7 June 1855) was an Italian general who is best remembered for founding the military unit known as the Bersaglieri. Two of his brothers were Alfonso Ferrero La Marmora and Alberto Ferrero la Marmora, the naturalist.

Bersaglieri

La Marmora was born in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The ...

in what was then the

Kingdom of Sardinia The Kingdom of Sardinia,The name of the state was originally Latin: , or when the kingdom was still considered to include Corsica. In Italian it is , in French , in Sardinian , and in Piedmontese . also referred to as the Kingdom of Savoy-S ...

. He had traveled in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

Bavaria Bavaria ( ; ), officially the Free State of Bavaria (german: Freistaat Bayern, link=no ), is a state in the south-east of Germany. With an area of , Bavaria is the largest German state by land area, comprising roughly a fifth of the total lan ...

Saxony Saxony (german: Sachsen ; Upper Saxon: ''Saggsn''; hsb, Sakska), officially the Free State of Saxony (german: Freistaat Sachsen, links=no ; Upper Saxon: ''Freischdaad Saggsn''; hsb, Swobodny stat Sakska, links=no), is a landlocked state of ...

, Switzerland, and the Austrian

county of Tyrol The (Princely) County of Tyrol was an estate of the Holy Roman Empire established about 1140. After 1253, it was ruled by the House of Gorizia and from 1363 by the House of Habsburg. In 1804, the County of Tyrol, unified with the secularised ...

to study the armies and tactics of these countries and meticulously investigated the armaments and equipment of these foreign armies.Alessandro Ferrero della Marmora
/ref> He demonstrated an early interest in

military technology Military technology is the application of technology for use in warfare. It comprises the kinds of technology that are distinctly military in nature and not civilian in application, usually because they lack useful or legal civilian applicatio ...

, and worked assiduously to improve the breechloading gun, for example. At his own house, he built a workshop to experiment with military technology. The first public appearance of the Bersaglieri was on the occasion of a military parade on 1 July 1836. The new corps impressed King Carlo Alberto, who immediately had them integrated as part of the '' Armata Sarda'', the Piedmontese regular army. Throughout the nineteenth century, under La Marmora's leadership, the Bersaglieri filled the role of

skirmisher Skirmishers are light infantry or light cavalry soldiers deployed as a vanguard, flank guard or rearguard to screen a tactical position or a larger body of friendly troops from enemy advances. They are usually deployed in a skirmish line, an ir ...

s, screening the slow-moving line and column formations, but acting as special

shock troops Shock troops or assault troops are formations created to lead an attack. They are often better trained and equipped than other infantry, and expected to take heavy casualties even in successful operations. "Shock troop" is a calque, a loose tra ...

if required. They were originally intended to serve as

mountain troops Mountain warfare (also known as alpine warfare) is warfare in mountains or similarly rough terrain. Mountain ranges are of strategic importance since they often act as a natural border, and may also be the origin of a water source (for example, t ...

, as well; the climber Jean Antoine Carrel was a Bersagliere. When the Alpini Corps were created in 1872 a strong rivalry arose between the two elite corps.

Military record

He participated in the

Battle of Goito The Battle of Goito was fought between the Piedmontese and the Austrian army on 30 May 1848, in the course of the First Italian War of Independence. The Piedmontese army won the battle, as the Austrians were unable to break through to relieve the ...

(1848) during the First Italian War of Independence and served as a division commander in the

Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the ...

Death

He died at

Balaklava Balaklava ( uk, Балаклáва, russian: Балаклáва, crh, Balıqlava, ) is a settlement on the Crimean Peninsula and part of the city of Sevastopol. It is an administrative center of Balaklava Raion that used to be part of the Cri ...

from cholera shortly after disembarking there during the

. A memorial bust was erected outside among the statues and monuments of patriots on the Janiculum hill in Rome. The ''Giardino La Marmora'' in

is a park which includes a life-size bronze statue.

References

External links

*
Alessandro Ferrero della Marmora: fondatore del Corpo dei Bersaglieri
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ferrero La Marmora, Alessandro 1799 births 1855 deaths Military personnel from Turin Italian people of the Italian unification People of the Crimean War Deaths from cholera People of the First Italian War of Independence Italian generals