Battle of Sobraon

Battle of Sobraon
Part of First Anglo-Sikh War
Sardar Sham Singh Attariwala rallying Sikh cavalry for the last stand
Date 10 February 1846 Location Sobraon, Punjab Result Decisive British victory
Belligerents
Sikh Empire	East India Company
Commanders and leaders
Tej Singh Lal Singh Sardar Sham Singh Attariwala  † Sardar Ranjodh Singh Majithia  (WIA)	Sir Hugh Gough Sir Henry Hardinge
Strength
26,000 70 guns	20,000 35 siege guns 30 field or light guns
Casualties and losses
10,000 killed 6,000 wounded 7,000 drowned 67 guns lost	230 killed 2,063 wounded

The Battle of Sobraon was fought on 10 February 1846, between the forces of the East India Company and the Sikh Khalsa Army, the army of the Sikh Empire of the Punjab. The Sikhs were completely defeated, making this the decisive battle of the First Anglo-Sikh War.

The First Anglo-Sikh war began in late 1845, after a combination of increasing disorder in the Sikh empire following the death of Ranjit Singh in 1839 and provocations by the British East India Company led to the Sikh Khalsa Army invading British territory. The British had won the first two major battles of the war through a combination of luck, the steadfastness of British and Bengal units and equivocal conduct bordering on deliberate treachery by Tej Singh and Lal Singh, the Dogra commanders of the Sikh Army.

On the British side, the Governor General, Sir Henry Hardinge, had been dismayed by the head-on tactics of the Bengal Army's commander-in-chief, Sir Hugh Gough, and was seeking to have him removed from command. However, no commander senior enough to supersede Gough could arrive from England for several months. Then the army's spirits were revived by the victory gained by Sir Harry Smith at the Battle of Aliwal, in which he eliminated a threat to the army's lines of communication, and the arrival of reinforcements including much-needed heavy artillery and two battalions of Gurkhas.

The Sikhs had been temporarily dismayed by their defeat at the Battle of Ferozeshah, and had withdrawn most of their forces across the Sutlej River. The Regent Jind Kaur who was ruling in the name of her son, the infant Maharaja Duleep Singh, had accused 500 of her officers of cowardice, even flinging one of her garments in their faces.

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