Campaign journal of Captain Louis Edward Nolan aide-de-camp to General Airey, Quarter Master General in the Crimea, 5 September to 12 October 1854

Nolan (1818-1854) began to keep a campaign journal as soon as he landed in the Crimea on 14 September 1854. In lay-out his narrative occupies the right-hand page and his commentary the left-hand. The failure of the cavalry to mount a pursuit of the defeated Russians after the Battle of the Alma on 20 September left Nolan severely critical of the caution of the Cavalry Division's commander, Lord Lucan:

'At no time sh[oul]d Cavalry stand fast to count the opposing squadrons. Frederick the Great gave an order that any Cav[a]l[r]y Officer meeting the Enemy & not charging sh[oul]d be cashiered! When a routed army was in full retreat what excuse can any one find for those horsemen who did not do their duty & whose chief replied to an order to advance that the Russians were very numerous!!'

Nolan's strictures upon Lord Lucan help explain his state of mind when, a month later, he delivered the fateful order that launched the Charge of the Light Brigade.