Battle of Sobraon
The Sikhs fought with their backs to the Sutlej, and the bridge of boats behind them broke. Sham Singh Attariwala died with his men.
The last battle of the First Anglo-Sikh War was fought on 10 February 1846 at Sobraon, where the Sikh army had built a great entrenchment on the left bank of the Sutlej, connected to the other bank by a bridge of boats.
The British bombarded the entrenchment and then attacked. At the start of the battle Tej Singh, the Sikh commander, crossed the bridge to the far side and, tradition says, had it broken behind him. The Sikhs, trapped against the flooded river, fought to the end. The old general Sham Singh Attariwala, dressed in white, rode into the British lines and was killed. Thousands of Sikhs died in the river, shot as they swam.
The British lost some 2,300 men; the Sikhs perhaps ten thousand. Within days the British were in Lahore. By the treaties of Lahore and Amritsar, the kingdom lost the Jalandhar Doab and Kashmir and was placed under British control.
The two Anglo-Sikh Wars
1845 – 1849- 1
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After Sobraon the Treaty of Lahore (March 1846) took the Jalandhar Doab and the hills, and Kashmir went to Gulab Singh. After Gujrat the Kingdom of Lahore was annexed, on 29 March 1849.
Same era
The British conquest: the Anglo-Sikh Wars
First battle of the First Anglo-Sikh War, fought at dusk among dust and scrub. The Sikh commanders, Lal Singh and Tej Singh, were later widely accused of betraying their own army.
So close that Hardinge prepared to burn his papers. Tej Singh withdrew when the exhausted British were at his mercy.
A British victory on the Sutlej near Ludhiana.
A British cavalry charge on the Chenab ran into the Sikh guns and was repulsed.
The revolt at Multan that began the Second Anglo-Sikh War. A British shell blew up the fort's main magazine in December, and Mulraj surrendered in January 1849.
One of the bloodiest battles the British fought in India. The losses led to calls in London for Gough's dismissal.
Overwhelming British artillery broke the Sikh army. On 29 March 1849 Punjab was annexed and the boy Maharaja Duleep Singh deposed.