On 10 February 1846 the army of the East India Company under Sir Hugh Gough attacked the Sikh Khalsa army in its fortified bridgehead at Sobraon, on the Sutlej River. After a failed bombardment and a morning of costly assaults, the British and Indian troops broke into the entrenchments. The bridge of boats behind the Sikhs gave way, and thousands died trying to cross the flooded river. It was the last and decisive battle of the First Anglo-Sikh War.
A bridgehead on the Sutlej
The Sikh state in the Punjab had been built into a strong power by Maharaja Ranjit Singh, but after his death in 1839 its government broke down in a series of palace revolutions and the army became the real power in Lahore. In December 1845 the Khalsa crossed the Sutlej into British territory. It was defeated at Mudki and Ferozeshah, and on 28 January 1846 Sir Harry Smith beat another Sikh force at Aliwal, a battle described on our 28 January page.1
The main Sikh army then dug in on the British bank of the Sutlej at Sobraon, with its back to the river and a bridge of boats behind it. The BritishBattles.com account describes the position as a semicircle of ditch and rampart about two miles long. The British commander in chief, General Sir Hugh Gough, waited until Smith's division had rejoined him and the heavy siege guns had come up. The Governor-General, Sir Henry Hardinge, was with the army.2
The bayonet after the guns
Fog delayed the start on the morning of 10 February. When it lifted, the British heavy guns opened fire, but the bombardment did little damage, and by about 8.30 a.m. the guns had run short of ammunition, according to the BritishBattles.com account. That account also records Gough's reply when he was told: thank God, now he would be at them with the bayonet.3
The main attack fell on the western end of the Sikh line, the weakest stretch, and was made by Major General Sir Robert Dick's division, while the divisions of Gilbert and Smith made feint attacks on the rest of the line. Dick's men got into the works but were thrown out by Sikh counterattacks, and Dick was killed. Gough turned the feints into real assaults, and according to BritishBattles.com some brigades reached ramparts they could not climb without ladders. At last the line gave way. Engineers blew a breach in the defenses, and British cavalry and horse artillery rode through it into the middle of the Sikh position.4
The bridge of boats
Rain had swollen the Sutlej and flooded the fords. As the Sikhs fell back, the bridge of boats broke, and thousands were trapped on the British bank. Many fought to the end rather than surrender; others drowned in the river while British guns fired into the crowds in the water. Among the dead was the veteran general Sham Singh Attariwala, who is remembered for leading the last Sikh charge.5
Why the bridge failed is still argued. The Sikh commander Tej Singh had left the field early. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says he had the bridge destroyed behind him, and BritishBattles.com that he removed its central section; the National Army Museum leaves open whether he cast the boats loose or the bridge simply broke under the traffic of the retreat. The National Army Museum notes that his defenders claim he cut it to slow the British advance on Lahore.6
Losses and the peace
No exact count exists. Britannica says more than 10,000 Sikhs were killed trying to cross the river, the National Army Museum perhaps as many as 10,000, and BritishBattles.com about 9,000 killed or wounded. All 67 Sikh guns were taken. British and Indian losses were 2,383 killed and wounded according to Britannica and 2,283 according to BritishBattles.com.7
The British crossed the Sutlej and marched on Lahore. Under the Treaty of Lahore, signed on 9 March 1846, the Sikhs gave up the land between the Sutlej and the Beas, Jammu and Kashmir were separated from the Punjab, the Sikh army was limited in size and a British resident was stationed at Lahore. The peace did not last: the Second Anglo-Sikh War broke out in 1848 and ended with the annexation of the Punjab in 1849. Its hardest battle is told in our article on Chillianwala.8
Also on this day
- 1814: Battle of Champaubert. Napoleon's French army fell on a small, isolated Russian corps under Lieutenant General Olsufiev at Champaubert, opening the Six Days' Campaign against the invading Allies.
