# Battle Of Goojerat



## Admin (Jun 3, 2009)

*Battle of Goojerat*

The final battle of the  			Sikh Wars, in which Gough’s Army 
			of the Punjab methodically destroyed the last Sikh army.

​ War: Second Sikh War.
Date: 21st February 1849.
Place: In the Punjab in the North West of India.
Combatants: British troops and Indian troops of the Bengal  			and Bombay Presidencies against Sikhs of the Khalsa, the army of the  			Punjab with their Afghan allies. 






			Bengal Horse Artillery​ Generals: Major General Sir Hugh Gough against the Sikh  			general, Shere Singh.
			Size of the armies: 24,000 British, Bengal Army and Bombay Army  			troops with 96 guns against 60,000 Sikhs with 59 guns.
Uniforms, arms and equipment (this section is identical for  			each of the battles in the Sikh Wars):
The two wars fought between 1845 and 1849 between the British  			and the Sikhs led to the annexation of the Punjab by the British  			East India Company and one of the most successful military  			co-operations between two races, stretching into a century of strife  			on the North West Frontier of British India, the Indian Mutiny,  			Egypt and finally the First and Second World Wars. 
The British contingent comprised four light cavalry regiments  			(3rd, 9th, 14th and 16th Light Dragoons- the 9th and 16th being  			lancers) and twelve regiments of foot (9th, 10th, 24th, 29th, 31st,  			32nd, 50th, 53rd, 60th, 61st, 62nd and 80th regiments).
The bulk of General Gough’s “Army of the Sutlej” in the First  			Sikh War and “Army of the Punjab” in the Second comprised regiments  			from the Bengal Presidency’s army: 9 regular cavalry regiments (the  			Governor-General’s Bodyguard and 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th  			and 11th Bengal Light Cavalry), 13 regiments of irregular cavalry  			(2nd, 3rd, 4th, 7th to 9th and 11th to the 17th Bengal Irregular  			Cavalry), 48 regiments of foot (1st to 4th, 7th, 8th, 12th to 16th,  			18th, 20th, 22nd, 24th to 27th, 29th to 33rd, 36th, 37th, 41st to  			54th, 56th, 59th, 63rd and 68th to 73rd Bengal Native Infantry),  			horse artillery, field artillery, heavy artillery and sappers and  			miners.
The Bombay presidency contributed a force that marched in from  			Scinde in the West and gave considerable assistance at the Siege of  			Multan; the 19th Bombay Native Infantry gaining the title of the  			Multan Regiment for its services in the siege, a label still held by  			its Indian Army successor. A Bombay brigade under Brigadier Dundas  			joined General Gough’s army for the final battle of the Second Sikh  			War at Goojerat, where the two regiments of Scinde Horse, Bombay  			Irregular Cavalry, particularly distinguished themselves. The  			brigade comprised: 2 regiments of Scinde Horse, 3rd and 19th Bombay  			Native Infantry and Bombay horse artillery and field artillery.
Each of the three presidencies in addition to their native  			regiments possessed European infantry, of which the 1st Bengal  			(European) Infantry, 2nd Bengal (European) Light Infantry and 1st  			Bombay (European) Fusiliers took part in the Sikh Wars.
Other corps fought under the British flag, such as the Shekawati  			cavalry and infantry and the first two Gurkha regiments: the Nasiri  			Battalion (later 1st Gurkhas) and the Sirmoor Battalion (later 2nd  			Gurkhas).
General Gough commanded the British/Indian army at 6 of the 7  			major battles (not Aliwal). An Irishman, Gough was immensely popular  			with his soldiers for whose welfare he was constantly solicitous.  			The troops admired Gough’s bravery, in action wearing a conspicuous  			white coat, which he called his “Battle Coat”, so that he might draw  			fire away from his soldiers.
Gough’s tactics were heavily criticised, even in the Indian press  			in letters written by his own officers. At the Battles of Moodkee,  			Sobraon and Chillianwallah Gough launched headlong attacks  			considered to be ill-thought out by many of his contemporaries.  			Casualties were high and excited concern in Britain and India. His  			final battle, Goojerat, decisively won the war, cost few of his  			soldiers their lives and was considered a model of care and  			planning.







			The Battle of Goojerat​ Every battle saw vigorous cavalry actions with HM 3rd King’s Own  			Light Dragoons and HM 16th Queen’s Royal Lancers particularly  			distinguishing themselves. The British light cavalry wore  			embroidered dark blue jackets and dark blue overall trousers, except  			the 16th who bore the sobriquet “the Scarlet Lancers” for their red  			jackets. The headgear of the two regiments of light dragoons was a  			shako with a white cover; the headgear of the lancers the  			traditional Polish tschapka. 
HM regiments of foot wore red coats and blue trousers with shakos  			and white covers.
			The Bengal and Bombay light cavalry regiments wore pale blue  			uniforms. The infantry of the presidency armies wore red coats and  			peakless black shakos.
The weapons for the cavalry were the lance for the lancer  			regiments and sword and carbine for all; the infantry were armed  			with the Brown Bess musket and bayonet.
Commands in the field were given by the cavalry trumpet and the  			infantry drum and bugle.
In the initial battles the Sikh artillery outgunned Gough’s  			batteries. Even in these battles and in the later ones the Bengal  			and Bombay horse and field artillery were handled with great  			resource and were a major cause of Gough’s success.
Many of the more senior British officers had cut their military  			teeth in the Peninsular War and at the Battle of Waterloo: Gough,  			Hardinge, Havelock of the 14th Light Dragoons, Cureton, ****,  			Thackwell and others. Many of the younger men would go on to fight  			in the Crimea and the Indian Mutiny.
The Sikhs of the Punjab looked to the sequence of Gurus for their  			spiritual inspiration and had established their independence  			fiercely resisting the Moghul Kings in Delhi and the Muslims of  			Afghanistan. The Sikhs were required by their religion to wear the  			five “Ks”, not to cut their hair or beard and to wear the highly  			characteristic turban, a length of cloth in which the hair is  			wrapped around the head.
The Maharajah of the Punjab, Ranjit Singh, whose death in 1839  			ended the Sikh embargo on war with the British, established and  			built up the powerful Sikh Army, the “Khalsa”, over the twenty years  			of his reign. The core of the “Khalsa” was its body of infantry  			regiments, equipped and trained as European troops, wearing red  			jackets and blue trousers. The Sikh artillery was held in high  			esteem by both sides. The weakness in the Sikh army was its horse.
The regular cavalry regiments never reached a standard comparable  			to the Sikh foot, while the main element of the mounted arm  			comprised clouds of irregular and ill-disciplined “Gorcharras”. 
The traditional weapon of the Sikh warrior is the “Kirpan”, a  			curved sword kept razor sharp and one of the five “Ks” a baptised  			Sikh must wear. In battle, at the first opportunity, many of the  			Sikh foot abandoned their muskets and, joining their mounted  			comrades, engaged in hand to hand combat with sword and shield.  			Horrific cutting wounds, severing limbs and heads, were a frightful  			feature of the Sikh Wars in which neither side gave quarter to the  			enemy.
It had taken the towering personality of Ranjit Singh to control  			the turbulent “Khalsa” he had established. His descendants found the  			task beyond them and did much to provoke the outbreak of the First  			Sikh War in the hope that the Khalsa would be cut down to size by  			the armies of the British East India Company. The commanders of the  			Sikh armies in the field rarely took the initiative in battle,  			preferring to occupy a fortified position and wait for the British  			and Bengalis to attack. In the opening stages of the war there was  			correspondence between Lal Singh and the British officer, Major  			Nicholson, suggesting that the Sikhs were being betrayed by their  			commander.
Pay in the Khalsa was good, twice the rate for sepoys in the  			Bengal Army, but it was haphazard, particularly after the death of  			Ranjit Singh. Khalsa administration was conducted by clerks writing  			in the Persian language. In one notorious mutiny over pay Sikh  			soldiers ran riot looking for anyone who could, or looked as if they  			could, speak Persian and putting them to the sword.
The seven battles of the war and the siege of the city of Multan  			were hard fought. Several of the battle fields were wide flat spaces  			broken by jungly scrub, from which the movement of large bodies of  			troops in scorching heat raised choking clouds of dust. As the  			fighting began the dust clouds intermingled with dense volumes of  			musket and cannon smoke. With the thunder of gunfire and horse  			hooves, the battle yells and cries of the injured, the battles of  			the Sikh Wars were indeed infernos.
Winner: This convincing victory by Gough’s army brought  			the Sikh Wars to an end and brought about the annexation of the  			Punjab into British India.
British and Indian Regiments: 
			British Regiments:
			HM 3rd King’s Own Light Dragoons, now the Queen’s Royal Hussars. *
			HM 9th Queen’s Royal Light Dragoons (Lancers), now the 9th/12th  			Royal Lancers. *
			HM 14th the King’s Light Dragoons, now the King’s Royal Hussars.*
			HM 16th Queen’s Light Dragoons (Lancers), now the Queen’s Royal  			Lancers. *
			HM 10th Foot, later the Royal Lincolnshire Regiment and now the  			Royal Anglian Regiment.*
			HM 24th Foot, later the South Wales Borderers and now the Royal  			Welsh Regiment.*
			HM 29th Foot, later the Worcestershire Regiment and now the  			Worcestershire and Sherwood Foresters Regiment. *
			HM 32nd Foot, later the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry and now  			the Rifles.*
			HM 1st Battalion, 60th Rifles, later Royal Green Jackets and now the  			Rifles.*
			HM 61st Foot, later the Wiltshire Regiment and now the Royal  			Gloucestershire, Berkshire and Wiltshire Regiment. *
Bengal Army regiments:
			Cavalry:
			1st Bengal Light Cavalry.*
			5th Bengal Light Cavalry.*
			6th Bengal Light Cavalry.*
			8th Bengal Light Cavalry.*
			3rd Bengal Irregular Cavalry.*
			9th Bengal Irregular Cavalry.*
			11th Bengal Irregular Cavalry.*
			14th Bengal Irregular Cavalry.*Infantry:
			2nd Bengal (European) Fusiliers.*
			8th Bengal Native Infantry.*
			15th Bengal Native Infantry.*
			20th Bengal Native Infantry.*
			25th Bengal Native Infantry.*
			30th Bengal Native Infantry.*
			31st Bengal Native Infantry.*
			36th Bengal Native Infantry.*
			45th Bengal Native Infantry.*
			46th Bengal Native Infantry.*
			51st Bengal Native Infantry.*
			52nd Bengal Native Infantry.*
			56th Bengal Native Infantry.*
			69th Bengal Native Infantry.*
			70th Bengal Native Infantry.*
			72nd Bengal Native Infantry.*





					An officer of Bengal Light Cavalry.​ Horse Artillery and Field Artillery.

			Bombay Army regiments:
			Cavalry:
			1st Scinde Irregular Horse.*
			2nd Scinde Irregular Horse.* 





			The Scinde Horse​ Infantry:
			1st Bombay (European) Fusiliers.*
			3rd Bombay Native Infantry.*
			19th Bombay Native Infantry.*

			Field Artillery.

			Punjab Regiment:
			Corps of Guides.*

			Cavalry:
			1st Scinde Irregular Horse in 1861 became the 5th Bombay Cavalry,  			from 1903 35th Scinde Horse, from 1922 the 14th Prince of Wales’s  			Own Scinde Horse and from 1950 the 14th Scinde Horse of the Indian  			Army.*
			2nd Scinde Irregular Horse in 1861 became the 6th Bombay Cavalry,  			from 1903 36th Jacob’s Horse, from 1922 the 14th Prince of Wales’s  			Own Scinde Horse and from 1950 the 14th Scinde Horse of the Indian  			Army.*
			The Corps of Guides in 1874 became the Queen’s Own Corps of Guides,  			in 1922 10th Queen Victoria’s Own Corps of Guides Cavalry (FF), in  			1927 The Guides Cavalry (10th) (Queen Victoria’s Own FF) and in 1947  			the Guides Cavalry of the Pakistan Army.*

			All the Bengal cavalry regiments that fought at Goojerat ceased to  			exist in 1857. 





			Bengal Irregular Cavalry​ Infantry:
			2nd Bengal (European) Light Infantry, in 1861 became 102nd Light  			Infantry and from 1880 the Royal Munster Fusiliers. Disbanded in  			1922.*
			31st Bengal Native Infantry in1861 became the 2nd Bengal Light  			Infantry, in 1903 2nd (Queen’s Own) Rajput Light Infantry, in 1922  			1st (Queen Victoria’s Own) Light Infantry Battalion 7th Rajput  			Regiment and in 1950 became 4th Battalion the Brigade of the Guards  			of the Indian Army.*
			70th Bengal Native Infantry in 1861 became the 11th Bengal Native  			Infantry and from 1903 11th Rajputs, from 1922 5th Battalion 7th  			Rajput Regiment; from 1947 5th Battalion, the Rajput Regiment of the  			Indian Army.*
			1st Bombay (European) Fusiliers in 1862 became HM 103rd (Royal  			Bombay Fusiliers) and from 1880 2nd Battalion Royal Dublin  			Fusiliers. Disbanded in 1922.*
			3rd Bombay Native Infantry in 1903 became the 103rd Mahratta Light  			Infantry and from 1922 1st Battalion 5th Mahratta Light Infantry;  			from 1947 1st Battalion, the Mahratta Light Infantry of the Indian  			Army.*
			19th Bombay Native Infantry in 1903 became the 119th Infantry (The  			Mooltan Regiment) and from 1922 2nd Battalion (Mooltan Battalion)  			9th Jat Regiment; from 1947 Battalion (Mooltan Battalion), the Jat  			Regiment of the Indian Army.*






19th Bombay Native Infantry, one of the Bombay Army regiments at  			the Battle of Goojerat​ 
			The remaining Bengal infantry regiments that fought at Goojerat  			ceased to exist in 1857.

			Order of Battle of the Army of the Punjab at the Battle of Goojerat.
			General Sir Hugh Gough, Commander-in-Chief:
			The Cavalry Division: Major General Sir Joseph Thackwell.
			1st Brigade: Brigadier Lockwood; HM 14th Light Dragoons, 1st Bengal  			Light Cavalry, elements of 11th and 18th Bengal Irregular Cavalry.
			2nd Brigade: Brigadier He{censored}y; 3rd and 9th Bengal Irregular  			Cavalry.
			3rd Brigade: Brigadier White; HM 3rd Light Dragoons, HM 9th Lancers,  			8th Bengal Light Cavalry, Scinde Irregular Horse and 2 troops of  			horse artillery.
			The Guides Cavalry. 





			A Sikh Gocharra Horseman​ 1st Infantry Division: General Whish.
			Lieutenant Colonel Hervey’s Brigade: HM 10th Foot, 8th and 52nd  			Bengal Native Infantry, 1 company of Pioneers and 1 troop of horse  			artillery.
			Brigadier Markham’s Brigade: HM 32nd Foot, 51st and 72nd Bengal  			Native Infantry, 2 troops of horse artillery and a light field  			battery.
			Brigadier Hoggan’s Reserve Brigade: 5th and 6th Bengal Light  			Cavalry, 45th and 69th Bengal Native Infantry and 1 Bombay light  			field battery. 

			2nd Infantry Division: General Gilbert.
			Brigadier Penny’s Brigade: 2nd Bengal (Europeans) Fusiliers, 31st  			and 70th Bengal Native Infantry.
			Brigadier Mountain’s Brigade: HM 29th Foot, 30th and 56th Bengal  			Native Infantry.

			3rd Infantry Division: Major General Sir Colin Campbell.
			Brigadier Carnegy’s Brigade: HM 24th Foot and 25th Bengal Native  			Infantry.
			Brigadier McLeod’s Brigade: HM 61st Foot, 36th and 46th Bengal  			Native Infantry and 2 light field batteries.
			Brigadier Dundas’ Brigade (Bombay Army): HM 60th Rifles, 1st Bombay  			(European) Fusiliers, 3rd and 19th Bombay Native Infantry and 1  			Bombay light field battery. Also the Scinde Camel Baggage Corps.

			Heavy Artillery:
			10 eighteen pounders 
			8 eight inch howitzers.


Account: 
			Following the carnage of the Battle of Chillianwallah, General  			Gough’s Army of the Punjab camped around the village, while for  			three days it poured with rain. Shere Singh’s Sikh Army lay at the  			village of Rasul between Chillianwallah and the River Jhelum. 
The weather cleared but Gough resolved not to attack the Sikhs  			until General Whish had captured Multan and rejoined him with his  			division. Shere Singh tried to lure Gough into a premature battle,  			but to no avail. 





			Maharajah Shere Singh, the son of Ranjit Singh, commanding the Sikh  			Army at the Battle of Goojerat​ The army of Chattar Singh joined the Sikhs at Rasul, bringing a  			force of 1,500 Afghan cavalry commanded by the son of Dost Mohammed,  			the Amir of Afghanistan who had so humiliatingly defeated the  			British in the First Afghan War.
On 25th January 1849 shortage of supply forced Shere Singh to  			leave Rasul and march for the more fertile country around Goojerat  			on the Chenab River to the East. 
Gough dispatched Lieutenant Hodson with a force of cavalry to  			Wazirabad on the far side of the Chenab to watch for a Sikh  			incursion across the river.
On 15th February 1849 Gough broke camp and moved towards the  			Chenab in order to meet Whish’s division and put himself in a  			position to attack the Sikhs.
On Gough’s direction Whish sent a small force to reinforce Hodson  			in Wazirabad. 
On 16th, 17th and 18th February 1849, Gough approached the Sikh  			army in Goojerat; on the last day of the march Whish’s division  			rejoined the army. On 19th and 20th February 1849, Dundas’s Bombay  			brigade and Markham’s Bengal brigade marched in, giving Gough his  			decisive force for the final battle with the Sikhs; 24,000 troops  			and 96 guns.
Gough found the Sikh army numbering 60,000 men, drawn up to the  			South of Goojerat, the mass of the regular Sikh infantry with 59  			guns in line in the two mile gap between the dry river Dwara on the  			right and the flowing Katela river on the left. On each flank the  			Sikh cavalry continued the line beyond the two river beds with the  			Afghan cavalry on the right. The Sikhs had fortified a number of  			villages lying in advance of their line.





			A Sikh Gocharra Horseman​ Behind the Sikh line the distant Himalayas gave a dramatic snow  			tipped backdrop to the forthcoming battle.
Gough planned to launch his main attack alongside the Dwara  			nullah, while the 1st and 2nd cavalry brigades pinned the Sikh left  			flank and centre. His infantry brigades would be formed for the  			attack: from the right, Hervey’s, Penny’s and Mountain’s brigades,  			with Markham’s brigade in support. To the left of Hervey’s would be  			the heavy guns on the bank of the Dawa: on the left bank of the dry  			nullah, Carnegy’s, McLeod’s and Dundas’s brigades with Hoggan’s  			reserve in support. White’s cavalry brigade would cover the left  			flank. 
The British, Bengal and Bombay troops fell in for the battle soon  			after dawn on 21st February 1849. Gough rode down the line, wearing  			his white “Fighting Coat”, and was cheered vigorously by his men.
On the signal the Army of the Punjab advanced two miles towards  			the Sikh positions, halting as the Sikh guns opened fire. Gough  			ordered his gun batteries forward, with a covering of skirmishers,  			and a heavy duel opened between the opposing artilleries, the Bengal  			and Bombay artillery outnumbering the Sikh guns nearly two to one.  			The decisive point came when the two Bengal horse artillery reserve  			batteries took several Sikh guns in enfilade and destroyed them.  			After two and half hours bombardment the Sikh fire began to fade. 			
With the slackening gunfire the Sikh cavalry on Gough’s right  			moved forward towards Hearsay’s cavalry division, leading to  			extensive manoeuvring between the opposing forces.
The main British infantry attack began as Penny’s and Mountain’s  			brigades, supported by the heavy guns, moved forward towards the  			centre of the Sikh line and were received with a heavy fire from the  			surviving guns. The village of Bara Kalra (Great Kalra) lay in  			advance of the right of the Sikh centre. A party of light troops  			moved forward to take the apparently empty village, to be met by a  			storm of shots from the loopholed houses. Gilbert, the divisional  			commander, dispatched the 2nd Bengal (European) Fusiliers to attack  			the Sikh garrison, the regiment pushing through the village in the  			face of a stubborn resistance. The Sikhs counter-attacked, pushing  			the 2nd Fusiliers back through Bara Kalra, until they were halted by  			blasts of grape shot at close range from Fordyce’s troop of Bengal  			Horse Artillery and the finally cleared from the village.
At the same time, Hervey’s brigade attacked the twin village of  			Chota Kalra (Little Kalra), HM 10th Foot and 8th BNI leading the  			attack. Again the resistance was fierce and the fire extremely  			heavy. Sikh cavalry threatened the right flank of the brigade,  			forcing the third regiment, 52nd BNI, to form to the flank.  			Markham’s brigade came up and with the supporting fire of  			Mackenzie’s and Anderson’s batteries of Bengal Horse Artillery,  			Hervey’s battalions took Chota Kalra.
On the left bank of the Dawa Nullah the artillery cleared the row  			of villages of their Sikh garrisons and Campbells’ three brigades  			advanced unopposed, enabling the guns to move forward and take the  			main Sikh line in enfilade across the Dawa, causing numerous  			casualties and contributing to the general retreat of the Sikh army.
On Gough’s left the Sikh cavalry moved forward and round his  			flank, but were halted by the fire of Duncan’s and Huish’s batteries  			of Bengal Horse Artillery. This was followed by a charge delivered  			by the Scinde Horse and a squadron of HM 9th Lancers, which drove  			the Sikh cavalry back. 
All along the line the Sikh formations were collapsing and taking  			to flight, in striking contrast to their measured withdrawal in all  			the previous battles of the wars, other than Aliwal. 
Thackwell’s cavalry pursued the Sikhs beyond Goojerat for 12  			miles towards the River Jhelum, halting only when his artillery  			horses were exhausted and could go no further. He{censored}y with the  			right flank cavalry brigades joined the rest of the Cavalry Division  			beyond Goojerat and continued the chase until nightfall.
Pickets were placed on the Chenab fords, permitting the Sikh  			soldiers to cross and return to their farms provided they  			surrendered their weapons.

Casualties: British and Indian casualties were 96 killed and  			750 wounded. The units that suffered most heavily were the 2nd  			Bengal (European) Fusiliers and the 31st BNI of Penny’s brigade  			during the attacks on Bara Kalra.
			Sikh casualties have been estimated at 2,000. They lost 56 guns. 
Follow-up: 
			General Gilbert with a force of infantry, cavalry and guns took up  			the pursuit the next day, marching fifty miles to the North in three  			days, halting for three and then resuming the advance. On 14th March  			1849 Gilbert reached Rawalpindi and received the surrender of Shere  			Singh and Lal Singh. On 19th March 1849 Gilbert crossed the Indus  			River at Attock in pursuit of Dost Mohammed’s Afghan troops and on  			21st March 1849 Gilbert’s troops marched into Peshawar. The war was  			over, the Punjab became part of British India and Sikh soldiers  			began to join the East India Company’s army.
Regimental anecdotes and traditions: 
			• During the battle a party of Sikh horse circled round behind  			Gough’s lines and attempted to attack him, being driven off by his  			escort of 5th Bengal Light Cavalry.
			• The Scinde Irregular Horse excited great admiration from onlookers  			who saw their charge on the left wing, delivered at great speed and  			in the closest of order. The regiment captured two Sikh standards.  			During the pursuit after the battle the Scinde Irregular Horse  			pursued the Afghan troops to the Khyber Pass.
			• Aspects of the Scinde horsemen’s equipment were much admired and  			emulated by Indian and British cavalry regiments, such as the  			shoulder chains designed to deflect sword cuts, which became and are  			still characteristic features of cavalry full dress.
			• At Goojerat, General Gough placed all his irregular cavalry  			regiments in the battle line, leaving two regular Bengal Light  			Cavalry regiments, the 5th and 6th, to guard the camp.
			• The 56th BNI lost its colours during the battle. One was  			recaptured and returned to the regiment by Sepoy Raganuth Dube of  			the 70th BNI, now the 5th Battalion of the Rajput Regiment of the  			Indian Army.
			• Following the two Sikh Wars Major General Sir Hugh Gough became a  			peer as Viscount Gough.
Medals and decorations:
			British and Indian soldiers who took part in the Second Sikh War  			received the silver medal entitled “Punjab Campaign, 1848-9”.
			Clasps were issued for the battles (or in the case of Mooltan the  			siege) which were described as: “Mooltan”, “Chillianwallah”, and “Goojerat”. 			
			Description of the medal: 
			Obverse.-Crowned head of Queen Victoria. Legend: “Victoria Regina.”
			Reverse.-The Sikh army laying down its arms before Sir W.R. Gilbert  			and his troops near Rawal Pindi. Inscription “To the Army of the  			Punjab.” In exergue “MDCCCXLIX.”
			Mounting.-Silver scroll bar and swivel.
			Ribbon.-Dark blue with two thin yellow stripes, 1 ¼ inch wide.References:
			• History of the British Army by Fortescue.
			• History of British Cavalry by the Marquis of Angelsey.






					The Punjab Campaign Medal (1848-9)​


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## spnadmin (Jun 3, 2009)

This is a really cool one. The pics have the the Gocharra horsement, but they look more to me like Nihangs in their signature turbans. Why the similarity?


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## Gyani Jarnail Singh (Jun 3, 2009)

AAD Ji..a GHOR-CHHARRA simply means HORSE MOUNTED...( cavalry)....so if an Akali / Nihung were to get up and mount a Horse..his Dastaar would remain the same ??..and IF the  Nihung/Akali Horseman came down to the ground..his dastaar would also remain the same as before..Please dont be offended..i am just being a "PIN"  ( pain in the Neck !!) ...as ususal...you were "lost" due to not knowing the Punjabi word.....Ghor-Chharra...and probably thought the Akalis and the GC were different sects or something ?? Same way i am lost when Amarsanghera comes up with some Latin/german etc...apologies in advance jios...

No matter how many tiems i THANK Aman ji for these battles..i wont be satisfied..just simply GREAT. I love them...and will come up with the Sikh version of events...soon...


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## spnadmin (Jun 3, 2009)

Gyani ji

I am not offended and appreciate the clarification. So the turbans can be the same for the Nihang/Akaali on or off-horse. Thanks


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## Gyani Jarnail Singh (Jun 4, 2009)

Yes jio.
The Ghorcharras ( ghorswars) which the Article author says are not as disciplined as the British cavalry..i can understand..as the Sikhs were essentially "volunteers" akin to the Crusaders..fighting for their Kaum..rather than for pay. The Regular cavalry and footmen of the Khalsa Army were of course well trained and thats why the British had to begin buying over the Dogra generals as Traitors to defeat the Khalsa Army.
The Sikhs had spent over 100 years on Horseback....fighting for their very existence..they practically lived on horseback....so i find it hard to beleive they couldnt be good horsemen..these same sikhs defeated larger armies of mughals etc
The Bengalis were among the First to Fall into British Hands...thus the preponderance of the Bengal sepoys..on one side is the INDIA and the other side is just Punjab.
I have enjoyed reading these  articles..still reading..


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## kds1980 (Jun 4, 2009)

> The Regular cavalry and footmen of the Khalsa Army were of course well trained and thats why the British had to begin buying over the Dogra generals as Traitors to defeat the Khalsa Army.



Hindu generals had a history of betraying their kings from 12th century.Purchasing traitor generals is a part of strategy of war,Britishers were smart in doing this.It was fault of sikh kings of that tome who trusted these generals


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## Gyani Jarnail Singh (Jun 4, 2009)

YES JIos..all is fair..in war and love ??
So the Britihsers found some rotten apples in the Khalsa Cart...and made use of them to achieve victory..
AND Today we have the same thing in Badal & family....looting looting and looting Punajb like no tomorrow...imho i beleive we SIKHS seem to have the MOST TRAITORS ( who sodl out their own mothers ) as well as Most Shaheeds !! (Who sacrificed even their own families ) (dont know why )
Anyway while the REST of India was slave under the Muslims for 1000 years and then under the British under another 250...PUNJAB was INDEPENDENT for about 70 years...and under the British for ONLY 90 Years...it was the PUNBJABI SIKHS thet drove out the Muslism invaders and sealed off Khyber pass...and it was the Punajbi SIKHS who drove the British out in 1947...


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