10 February 1846[EoS][EoS][Web]
Battle of Sobraon
The last battle of the First Anglo-Sikh War was fought on the Sutlej at Sobraon. The Sikh army was broken with its back to the river, and Sardar Sham Singh Atariwala fell in a final charge.
A large part of the Sikh army lay entrenched in a horseshoe on the left bank of the Sutlej under Tej Singh, joined to its base by a bridge of boats. After a Sikh success at Baddowal on 21 January, Sir Harry Smith had defeated Ranjodh Singh Majithia a week later, and the British had brought up ammunition and heavy guns from Delhi.
When the mist lifted on 10 February, British guns silenced the Sikh artillery within two hours, and the infantry charged the works from three sides. Tej Singh crossed the bridge as the fight began. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism's war entry says he had the bridge destroyed, while its entry on Sham Singh says he sank part of it.
Sham Singh Atariwala, dressed in white, had sworn to fall rather than retreat. He rode from column to column, then charged with fifty men and fell. His servants swam the river that evening to recover his body, and he was cremated outside his village on 12 February. Many Sikh soldiers were lost in the river.
The war entry gives 2,403 British killed and 3,125 Sikh dead, with all the guns taken or lost in the river. The British figure may be total casualties, since Wikipedia's summary gives 2,383 in all, along with 5,000 to 8,000 Sikh dead. Gough called the battle the Waterloo of India.[EoS][EoS][Web]