The despatch of the Commander-in-Chief, General Sir Hugh Gough, to the Governor-General, dated Camp, Kussoor, 13th of February, 1846, giving a detailed account of the battle of Sobraon, contained the following expressions of approbation and thanks:—
“I have now to make the attempt,—difficult, nay impracticable, though I deem it,—of expressing in adequate terms my sense of obligation to those who especially aided me by their talents and self-devotion in the hard-fought field of Sobraon.
“The major-generals of the divisions engaged deserve far more commendation than I am able, within the limits of a despatch, to bestow. * * *
“Brigadier Penny and Lieut.-Colonel Spence commanded the two brigades of Major-General Sir Henry Smith’s division, and overcame at their head the most formidable opposition. I beg to bring both in the most earnest manner to your notice. * * *
Madeley lith. 3 Wellington St Strand.
“The Sikhs, even when at particular points their intrenchments were mastered with the bayonet, strove to regain them by the fiercest conflict, sword in hand. Nor was it until the cavalry of the left, under Major-General Sir Joseph Thackwell, had moved forward and ridden through the openings in the intrenchments made by our sappers, in single file, and re-formed 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 is 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.
“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.
“Sixty-seven pieces of cannon, upwards of two hundred camel-swivels (zumboorucks), 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.