the 30th native infantry, pursued the
fugitives, pouring in a close, deadly, unremitting stream of musketry.
With wild cries of despair, casting away their arms, and lifting up
their hands as if beseechingly to their victors, the whole of the Khalsa
troops cast themselves into the river, except such of the earliest
fugitives as secured the boats and made good their passage. The river
was swollen; at the shallowest place the infantry were up to their
necks, and were under the fire of the artillery and musketry of their
pursuers. Those who succeeded in crossing drew up with a few guns, but
the fire of the artillery caused their speedy departure, leaving their
cannon behind. Lieutenant Holmes, of the irregular cavalry, and gunner
Scott, of the 2nd brigade horse-artillery, here performed a gallant
exploit; they swam their horses across the stream, and spiked the guns,
exposed to the fire of the enemy's skirmishers, but covered by the
British fire from the left bank. The conflict of Aliwal was over, and
one of the most skilfully fought and completely won battles of modern
times reflected its glory upon the name of Sir Harry Smith, and the
valour of the British army of India.

The scene after the battle was horrible; the whole field of combat was
covered with the slain; the river's banks were thickly strewn with the
dying and the dead; the Sutlej itself bore to the Sikhs at Sobraon
the tidings of the battle, for not only "redly ran its blushing waters
down," but the corpses of the slain Khalsa soldiery were borne along
in such numbers by the current as to reveal the horrible nature of the
slaughter, and to fill with dismay the Khalsa host.

The slain of the enemy was computed variously, from eight to ten
thousand men; the trophies of war were, nearly all the Khalsa standards,
fifty-one pieces of cannon, and a vast quantity of ammunition, small
arms, and camp equipage.

Every arm of the British force behaved with admirable gallantry and
skill; the infantry carried every point under the most galling fire,
preserving their formation in a manner beyond all praise; the cavalry
swept the horsemen of the enemy from the field, as the tide rolls the
wreck upon the shore; the artillery could not be surpassed by that of
any army in Europe: towards the close of the action, the manner in
which two 8-inch howitzers, ordered up by Sir Harry Smith himself, were
worked, excited the admiration of the troops.

This battle, however, did not