1 202 A Short History of the Sikhs.
2 enable General Whish to join him. After a delay of
3 five weeks, however, during which time Sher Singh
4 was busy entrenching himself, news arrived that
5 Attock had fallen, which meant that reinforcements
6 would speedily arrive, not for the British but for Sher
7 Singh. For two months Lieutenant Herbert, the
8 British representative at Attock, had kept Chattar
9 Singh at bay; and it was only when the latter was
10 reinforced by the Pathan troops of Dost Muhammad
11 that Herbert was forced to evacuate his stronghold,
12 thus leaving the way clear for the Sikh leader to
13 march to the assistance of Sher Singh.
14 Determined to strike his blow before Chattar Singh
15 could effect a junction with his son, Lord Gough,
16 on the morning of January 13, marched on the
17 Sikh position, and in the afternoon the battle of
18 Chilianwala was fought. The results of this
19 sanguinary encounter were of a negative description.
20 By the time night put an end to the fighting, the
21 British were in possession of the field of battle, while
22 the Sikhs had made an orderly retreat into their
23 entrenchments at Rassul. The fight lasted for little
24 more than three hours, but the slaughter was
25 tremendous. On the side of the British "thirty-
26 three officers, fifty-three sergeants or havildars, five
27 hundred and eleven common soldiers had fallen dead,
28 a hundred men and four sergeants Were missing, few
29 of whom returned alive ; while the wounded came up
30 to ninety-four officers, one warrant officer, ninety ser-
31 geants or havildars, and fourteen hundred and sixty-six
32 men of other ranks. Besides this fearful loss, un-
33 equalled in the record of Indian battles, four guns