Sher Singh Attariwala

Recorded sideSikh forces under Sher Singh Attariwala

Recorded resultheld the field

Inconclusive. The Sikhs gave up the east bank but held the crossing and the British attack failed at cost; both sides claimed it.

Gough moved before dawn expecting to surprise a crossing and found the position held on both banks and on an island in between. British cavalry pursuing into deep sand near the water were caught by guns they could not reach and lost heavily for nothing gained. The ground did the damage.

What followed

The opening engagement of the Second Anglo-Sikh War, and a useful corrective: the war that ended in annexation opened with a British failure. ⚠ Recorded as inconclusive rather than resolved, because the two sides were counting different things - the British counted the bank they gained, the Sikhs the crossing they kept.

Recorded sideSikh forces under Sher Singh Attariwala

Recorded resultwithdrew in good order, having taken British colours and guns

Tactically indecisive and among the most disputed results in the atlas. The British held the ground and lost four colours, several guns and roughly 2,300 men; the Sikhs withdrew intact and claimed the day.

Nothing worked. Gough attacked into thick scrub in the afternoon without adequate artillery preparation - his standing preference, and the thing he was repeatedly criticised for - and the scrub dissolved the British line into separate unsupported actions. Units lost direction, some broke, colours were taken. The Sikh gunners fought their pieces to the end. The British stayed on the ground and could do nothing with it.

What followed

⚠ THE ATLAS TAKES NO POSITION ON WHO WON, AND THAT IS THE ENTRY. The news reached London as a disaster and cost Gough his command - Charles Napier was sent to replace him and arrived after the war was over. It is the strongest case in the lane against reading a result off possession of the field: the side that held the ground lost the colours, the guns, the men and the general.

Recorded sideSikh forces with an Afghan contingent

Recorded resultdefeated; the army dispersed and surrendered on 12 March 1849

Decisive British victory. The Punjab was annexed on 29 March 1849.

Because Gough was finally made to fight the battle his army was equipped for. Under pressure after Chillianwala he opened with a two-and-a-half-hour artillery bombardment and did not send the infantry in until the Sikh guns had been beaten down. The casualty ratio between Chillianwala and Gujrat - 757 British dead against 96, five weeks apart, same general, same enemy - is the whole argument about his tactics, settled by his own two battles.

What followed

The end of the Sikh Empire and of independent Punjab. ⚠ It is also the atlas's cleanest natural experiment in command: one general, one army, one enemy, five weeks, and the only variable changed is whether the guns were used first. Nothing else in the atlas isolates a tactical choice that cleanly.