The Right Honourable the Governor-General, in his Order of Thanks to the Army, was pleased to pass the following high encomium on the conduct of the regiment in this fight:—
'Her Majesty's Third Light Dragoons, as usual, were in the foremost ranks, and distinguished themselves under their commanding officer, Lieut.-Colonel White.'
His Excellency the Commander-in-Chief, in his despatch, dated 13th February, 1846, thus expresses his unqualified approbation of the conduct of the regiment on this occasion:—'The Sikhs, even when at particular points their intrenchments were mastered by the bayonet, strove to regain them by the fiercest conflict sword in hand; nor was it until the cavalry of the left, under the command of Major-General Sir Joseph Thackwell,[50] had moved forward and ridden through the openings in the intrenchments made by our Sappers, in single files, and reformed as they passed them, and the Third Light Dragoons, whom no obstacle usually held formidable by horse, appears to check, had on this day, as at Ferozeshah, galloped over, and cut down the obstinate defenders of batteries and field-works, and until the full weight of three divisions of infantry with every field artillery gun which could be sent to their aid, had been cast into the scale, that victory finally declared for the British.[51]
'The fire of the Sikhs first slackened, and then nearly ceased; and the victors then pressing them on every side, precipitated them in masses over their bridge, and into the Sutlej, which a sudden rise of seven inches had rendered hardly fordable. In their efforts to reach the right bank through the deepened water, they suffered from our horse-artillery a terrible carnage: hundreds fell under this cannonade; hundreds upon hundreds were drowned in attempting the perilous passage. Their awful slaughter, confusion, and dismay, were such as would have excited compassion in the hearts of their generous conquerors, if the Khalsa troops had not, in the earlier part of the action, sullied their gallantry by slaughtering and barbarously mangling every wounded soldier, whom, in the vicissitudes of attack, the fortune of war left at their mercy.
'I must pause in this narrative to notice, especially, the determined hardihood and bravery with which our two battalions of Ghoorkhas, the Sirmoor and Nusseeree, met the Sikhs, wherever they were opposed to them: soldiers, of small stature but indomitable spirit, they vied in ardent courage in the charge with the grenadiers of our own nation; and armed with the short weapon of their mountains, were a terror to the Sikhs throughout this great combat.
'Sixty-seven pieces of cannon, upwards of two hundred camel-swivels (zumbooruks), numerous standards, and vast munitions of war, captured by our troops, are the pledges and trophies of our victory.
'The battle was over by eleven in the morning; and in the forenoon I caused our engineers to burn a part, and to sink a part, of the vaunted bridge of the Khalsa army, across which they had boastfully come once more to defy us, and to threaten India with ruin and devastation.
'The consequences of this great action have yet to be fully developed. It has at least, in God's providence, once more expelled the Sikhs from our territory, and planted our standards on the soil of the Punjaub. After occupying their entrenched position for nearly a month, the Khalsa army had perhaps mistaken the caution, which had induced us to wait for the necessary materiel, for timidity: but they must now deeply feel, that the blow, which has fallen on them from the British arm, has only been the heavier for being long delayed.'
The following are the losses sustained by the Third Light Dragoons in the action of Sobraon: killed, 5 men, 1 troop horse; wounded, 4 officers and 22 men, 2 officers' chargers and 13 troop horses.