The enemies' bodies were left to the disposal of the jackals and vultures, who fulfilled their task very imperfectly, satiety having made them epicures.
The country, from the field of Ferozeshuhur to the fords of Hureeka, marked the track of the enemy's retreat by the corpses of soldiers wounded in the battle, who had died on the road, but the actual number of the enemy's loss could not have exceeded our own.
The whole army with which Tej Singh crossed the Sutlej has been estimated at sixty thousand men; but more than this number must be allowed them if the entrenchments of Ferozeshuhur held fifty thousand defenders, as conjectured; for Sir Hugh Gough conceives that Tej Singh, when renewing the action of the 22nd of December, brought up several fresh battalions, supported by thirty thousand Goorcheras, and the greater portion of these must have constituted the force which was placed to watch Ferozepore, or to cover their retreat.
A field hospital was established for the wounded: those regiments which had suffered most severely were moved to Ferozepore, where they were enabled to receive medical attention under better cover than could be provided in camp. The main column of the army under Sir Hugh Gough proceeded towards the river, and encamped about twelve miles north-east of Ferozepore, and three miles from the banks of the Sutlej.
The enemy, immediately after crossing, had taken up the position he now occupied near the fords of Hureeka, anticipating, no doubt, that an immediate passage of the river would be attempted by the British generals. The Sikhs, in coming to this conclusion, were evidently ignorant of the amount of injury which they had inflicted, and of the state of our magazines on the north-western frontier.
Immediately after the action of Ferozeshuhur, when thanks had been returned to the Supreme Being for deliverance, every available regiment was ordered to the frontier, and an ample siege train from the Delhi magazine, with abundant supplies of ammunition, and every requisite for the prosecution of the campaign, were ordered forward with the most urgent despatch.
Regiments of irregular cavalry,[28] and large levies of infantry, were ordered to be forthwith raised with all the energy which the critical situation of affairs demanded, for a golden opportunity now offered itself to any malcontent chiefs in Hindostan to take advantage of the concentration of the Bengal army on the far-distant frontier. These orders were now enabled to reach the provinces in safety, as the population of the protected Sikh states no longer considered it prudent to interrupt the communication after their friends had recrossed the Sutlej.
The 21st and 22nd of December will ever be the most memorable (if it be not also deemed the most critical) epoch since the establishment of British supremacy in India.
Had the British forces been overwhelmed by the continual influx of fresh troops from the enemy's reserve force, and the failure of ammunition on their own, the sole barrier to the advance of the Sikh army into the British territories was the Merut force, less than five thousand strong, under Sir John Grey. And, that such a casualty had been deemed more than possible, may be concluded from the fact of Count Ravensberg, who accompanied the Governor-general's camp (and of whom continual mention is made in the despatches) being requested to quit the field, that he might not be a witness of, or a sufferer in, the issue which was anticipated. That nobleman, following the request which had been conveyed to him, proceeded reluctantly to Ferozepore, and thence to Buhawalpore on the Indus, before news reached him of the unexpected issue of the struggle.