Battle of Ramnagar

Who: The Khalsa army under Sardar Sher Singh Attariwala against a British and Bengal force under Sir Hugh Gough, with the cavalry commanded by Brigadier-General Charles Cureton. Sher Singh had been sent with Khalsa troops to help besiege Diwan Mulraj at Multan. His troops rebelled in September 1848, he moved north and fortified the crossings of the Chenab. One reference puts the British at about 12,000 men with 60 guns and the Sikhs at about 20,000 with 50 guns.

What: Early on 22 November 1848 Gough sent cavalry, horse artillery and an infantry brigade against the fortified Chenab crossing in what the Royal Collection Trust describes as a planned surprise attack. The British first drove some Sikh troops off the east bank. Then concealed Sikh batteries opened fire. The wide riverbed was soft sand, and the British cavalry and guns bogged down in it. The Sikh guns outgunned Gough's horse artillery, which withdrew.

Sher Singh sent about 3,000 horsemen across the ford. Gough ordered the 14th Light Dragoons and the 5th Bengal Light Cavalry to attack. Colonel William Havelock, commanding the dragoons, was killed leading a charge. Cureton galloped forward to order a retreat and was killed too. Official returns list 26 British killed or missing and 59 wounded, while another reference puts total British losses near 150. Sikh losses are estimated at a few hundred.

Where: Ramnagar (now Rasulnagar) on the Chenab river, in what is now Pakistan.

Why it mattered: It was the first big battle of the Second Anglo-Sikh War. The National Army Museum says the Sikhs regarded it as a victory and that it raised their morale. World History Encyclopedia calls it a narrow Company victory, and the sources disagree on who won, since Sher Singh's positions held while Gough's cavalry attack failed with the loss of two senior officers. The war went on through Sadulapur on 3 December and Chillianwala on 13 January 1849.