Moodkee—Ferozeshah—Aliwal—Sobraon—Chillianwallah—Multan—Goojerat—Punjab.
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The British conquest of the Punjab embraces two distinct phases—the one represented by the Sutlej Campaign of 1845-46, the other better known as the Punjab War of 1849. The extension of our dominions to the North-West, the gradual break-up and absorption of the hitherto independent principalities in Southern and Central India, had brought our frontiers conterminous with those of the powerful Sikh monarchy of Runjeet Singh. That monarch was a well-wisher—outwardly, at any rate—of his neighbours, and during the Afghan War he proved his loyalty to us. On his death the sovereignty of the Sikhs fell into the hands of a group bitterly hostile to the English, and it was evident that there were members of the Sikh Regency who believed that the overthrow of the British was a matter of comparative ease. Into the merits of the quarrel it is not my province to enter. Suffice it to say that on December 11 the Sikh army crossed the Sutlej, the boundary river between the two kingdoms, and that the crossing constituted an act of war.
In those far-off days our frontier stations were Ferozepore and Ludhiana, with Umballa in support. Ferozepore was the headquarters of a division, commanded by a sterling soldier, who had done good service in the Gwalior Campaign—Sir John Littler. It consisted of the 62nd (Wiltshire) Regiment, two batteries of horse, and two of field artillery, two regiments of native cavalry, and seven battalions of native infantry.
At Ludhiana, some eighty miles to the east, lay another division, under Brigadier Wheler, comprising the 50th (Royal West Kent), two batteries of horse artillery, three regiments of native cavalry, and five battalions of native infantry.
At Umballa, under Sir Walter Gilbert, a well-known soldier and equally well-known sportsman, were the 9th (Norfolks), 31st (East Surrey), and 80th (South Staffords), the 3rd Light Dragoons (now 3rd Hussars), two regiments of native cavalry, with the Governor-General's Bodyguard and five battalions of native infantry. At Kussowlie was the 29th (Worcesters), and at Subathoo the 1st Bengal Europeans (now the 1st Royal Munster Fusiliers), both these battalions being at the disposal of Sir Walter Gilbert.
Thus, at the three frontier stations there was a total force of some 22,000 men ready to face the Sikh advance. At Meerut, which was the headquarters of the Bengal Artillery, there were three horse and three field batteries, the 9th and 16th Lancers, the 10th Foot (the Lincolns), and a considerable force of native infantry, with one regiment of native cavalry.
The Sikh army was known to be superior in every way to any army we had yet met in India, both in training and in material. There were a considerable number of foreign officers in the employ of the Sikhs, and the men had a high reputation, which they maintain to this day, of being equal to the best material of which any army, whether European or Asiatic, can boast. Of its numbers at that time we had no accurate estimate. The Chief Political Officer, Major Broadfoot, who fell gloriously at Ferozeshah, reported that it consisted of upwards of 100,000 men, and that the Sikh plan of campaign was to invade British India with two powerful armies of 50,000 each—with the one to overwhelm Littler at Ferozepore, with the other to attack Wheler at Ludhiana. Fortunately for us, at the moment when their services and their friendly co-operation were most needed, both the Governor-General and the Commander-in-Chief were on the spot. The Governor-General, Sir Henry Hardinge, was a soldier of renown. He had served with Moore at Corunna, had rallied the men at Albuera with the now historic saying, "Die hard, my men—die hard!" and had lost an arm at Ligny, when attached to Blücher's army, the day before Waterloo. The Commander-in-Chief was a well-known fighter, and the forerunner of a family of equally heroic men. Sir Hugh Gough was an old comrade of the Governor-General's. He, too, had fought throughout the Peninsular War, but he had won his spurs at the capture of the Cape of Good Hope in 1805. At Barrosa under Graham, at Tarifa under Skerret, and in many a hard tussle under Wellington, Gough and the 87th (Royal Irish Fusiliers) had won imperishable renown. He had in more recent days shown himself as good a leader of an army as he had been commander of a regiment. In the China War of 1842 he had paved the way for the victory at Maharajpore. With two such soldiers in the field, the Khalsa army, despite its numbers, its organization, and the bravery of its men, was likely to meet its match.
Hard though the campaign was—and for some days the fate of our Indian Empire hung in the balance—no blame can be attached to the military authorities for any shortcomings that were disclosed during this campaign. On December 11 the Sikhs, crossing the Sutlej, cut in between Ferozepore and Umballa. On the following day the Commander-in-Chief moved out of Umballa to meet them. The din of battle was music in the ears of the war-worn Governor-General, and he blithely accompanied the army. On the 17th the Ludhiana division joined that of Umballa, and on the 18th the Sikhs and British met at Moodkee. Our troops had covered 150 miles in seven days, and, as Sir Charles Gough puts it in terse and soldier-like language, "wearied with long and incessant marching, the troops were enjoying a well-earned rest, when reports came in from the cavalry patrols that a large force of Sikhs was advancing upon them." Orders were at once given to fall in, and in a very few moments the force was formed in order of battle. The cavalry, with the horse artillery, immediately advanced, under Sir Hugh Gough's personal direction, and formed line in front of the Sikh position, the guns occupying the centre, with the cavalry on either flank. The infantry formed up in second line and moved forward. On the extreme right was Wheler's brigade, the next stood Bolton's, and then in succession a brigade of native regiments belonging to Gilbert's division, which had not yet been joined by the British battalions from Kussowlie; whilst to the left stretched Sir John McCaskill's division, which comprised the 9th (Norfolks) and the 80th (South Staffords), with three native battalions; and so commenced the opening scene in the drama which culminated at Goojerat two years later.