1846
Battle of Aliwal
The setting
Aliwal, on the south bank of the Sutlej
Open plain with the river directly behind the Sikh position and few crossings.
Reveal the outcome
Recorded sideSikh Khalsa Army
Recorded resultdefeated; driven into the Sutlej with the loss of the guns
British victory, and the one battle of the war both sides agree was won by handling rather than by anything else.
How the atlas explains it
Smith attacked the Sikh left, rolled the line laterally along its own front, and pushed the whole force back onto a river it could not cross in order. The 16th Lancers broke infantry squares in the process. It is the cleanest tactical performance by either side in the war, and it is also the battle where the Sikh commander was not one of the men in communication with the British - which is the comparison the atlas can now make because both kinds of battle are in it.
What followed
Called the battle without a mistake. Its real value here is as a CONTROL: fought by a Sikh commander with no established link to the enemy, lost on the field to superior handling rather than abandoned. Set beside Ferozeshah and Sobraon it is what makes the treachery in those entries measurable rather than asserted.