Battle of Ramnagar
| date | November 22, 1848 |
|---|---|
| place | Ramnagar , approx. 100 km north-west of Lahore ( Pakistan ) |
| output | British defeat |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| 12,000 men and 60 guns | 20,000 men and 50 guns |
| losses | |
|
86 dead and wounded |
unknown |
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The Battle of Ramnagar was a military conflict on November 22, 1848 between the British East India Company and the Sikh Army of the Punjab in the Second Sikh War .
prehistory
After the outbreak of the Second Sikh War, the insurgents had retreated to Multan after minor skirmishes , where they were besieged. The Sikh leader Sher Singh had meanwhile marched north and had assembled a force there.
In order to combat this, British forces had already crossed the Sutlej on November 9, 1848 . A day later, Lieutenant General Hugh Gough marched out of Lahore with his main army consisting of 21 battalions of infantry, 12 regiments of cavalry and 11 batteries.
On November 22nd, the British encountered Sher Singh's army, which was retreating across the Chanab .
course
Most of the Sikhs had already taken up positions on the right bank of the river while some were still on the march. The British attacked the latter and inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. However, the British artillery had advanced too far and the guns got stuck in the sand. The Sikh artillery opened fire while a cavalry unit tried to capture the guns. The attack was repulsed, with Brigadier C. R. Cureton being killed. The British lost 86 men.
After that skirmish, Gough decided to wait for his heavy artillery, but it didn't arrive until November 27th. Now Gough ordered Major General Joseph Thackwell to cross upriver the Chanab and attack Sher Singh's left flank , while he would attack the Sikhs head-on if his artillery were able to take out the enemy artillery.
Thackwell managed to cross the river by boat, but was ordered to wait for reinforcements before an attack. Sher Singh turned his troops on Thackwell and opened fire at Sadullapur on December 3, but withdrew that night. The British lost 73 men.
consequences
The Sikhs withdrew in order to the Jhelam , where they took up positions again. The battle of Chilianwala took place here on January 13th .
Gough was heavily criticized for his decisions as the enemy had crossed the river and was now in inhospitable territory, which would have made supplying his troops very difficult. Gough could have simply waited for Multan's fall and joined forces there to face Sher Singh under better auspices.
Individual evidence
- ^ GB Malleson: Associated Reprint: Four. The Decisive Battles of India (From 1746 to 1849 inclusive). Associated Publishing House, New Delhi 1973. Pages 346.
- ^ GB Malleson: Associated Reprint: Four. The Decisive Battles of India (From 1746 to 1849 inclusive) . Associated Publishing House, New Delhi 1973. Pages 346, 347, 355.
literature
- ER Crawford: The Sikh Wars, 1845-49 , In: Brian Bond (Ed.): Victorian Military Campaigns . New York 1967.
- Byron Farwell: Queen Victoria's Little Wars , Wordsworth Editions Limited, Hertfordshire 1999. ISBN 1-84022-215-8
- GB Malleson: Associated Reprint: Four. The Decisive Battles of India (From 1746 to 1849 inclusive). Associated Publishing House, New Delhi 1973.
- MS Naravene: Battles of the Honorable East India Company . Chaman Enterprises, New Delhi 2006.
Web links
Coordinates: 32 ° 19 ′ 0 ″ N , 73 ° 50 ′ 0 ″ E