The Russians at No 3 Redoubt watched the progress of the Charge with anxiety. Expecting the Light Brigade to swing right shortly and attack them, the Odessky Jaeger Regiment formed four battalion squares, some on the forward slope into the North Valley. Captain Bojanov was in command of the six 6 pounder guns and two 9 pounder howitzers of No 7 Light Battery, 12th Artillery Brigade. His guns were sited west along the Causeway Heights and he had five minutes to limber up and take up a new position covering the North Valley. He just managed it as he realised the Brigade was going on down the Valley and the First Line was level with him. They were now a difficult target, moving at over 10 mph, and taking only about two minutes to cross his 660 yd arc of fire. He probably got off about 32 shots.
Up on the Heights there was stupefaction and anger when it was realised that the Light Brigade were going on down the valley to certain destruction. Raglan and Airey must have realised that they would have some answers to provide and no doubt set about thinking about them. It was now that 'a French general' made his famous remark "C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la guerre".
Up with the Charge, no one was feeling particularly magnifique. As Bojanev's battery opened up on them they were also under fire from their objective, the four 6 pounder guns and four 9 pounder howitzers of No 3 Don Cossack Battery, commanded by Colonel Prince Obolensky. To Corporal Tom Morley of the 17th they were 'visible as streaks of fire about two feet long, and about a foot thick in the centre of a gush of thick white smoke' every 30-40 seconds. The musket fire from the Odessky squares was also proving effective. 'I got a musket ball through my right knee and another in the shin, and my horse had three bullet wounds in the neck' recalled Private Wightman in the front rank of the 17th. 'It was about this time that Sergeant Talbot had his head clean carried off by a round shot, yet for about thirty yards further the headless body kept the saddle, the lance at the charge firmly gripped under the right arm.'
As men and horses fell, the remainder closed up and kept their line intact. Riderless horses were a continual problem; terrified out of their wits they forced themselves into the ranks of the Support Line in particular. Typical was the experience of Lord Paget. 'The poor dumb brutes....were galloping about in numbers, like mad wild beasts. They consequently made dashes at me, some advancing with me a considerable distance, at one time as many as five on my right and two on my left, cringing in on me, and positively squeezing me as the round shot came bounding by them, tearing up the earth under their noses, my overalls being a mass of blood from their gory flanks. (They nearly upset me several times, and I had several times to use my sword to rid myself of them.)'
