ess of the infantry, prevented the destruction of the whole
right wing. The fresh artillery which came up opened upon the Sikh
cavalry with grape and canister, with such precision and fury that they
retreated. Two of the captured guns were recovered in the retreat. The
Sikhs gradually withdrew, leaving the field of battle in possession of
the British, who, on this account, claimed the victory. The enemy, in
the night, carried away all the guns which the British had spiked during
the action, the four pieces of horse artillery which they took on the
British right, and five stand of colours, and on these grounds also
claimed the victory; and a salute of twenty-one guns in honour of the
triumph was, as the English thought, most impudently fired. This was
also done at Attock, in the capital of Chuttur Singh, and wherever the
Sikh troops held a position. The Sikhs also claimed the victory for the
same reason as the English did--being left in possession of the field.
It was, in truth, a drawn battle. The Sikhs having began the engagement,
and the English having retained the ground on which they fought, while
the former retired their line, the battle may more correctly be said to
have been won by the British; but the advantages gained were altogether
on the part of the Sikhs, who continued to occupy for a month positions
from which the British did not attempt to dislodge them. During that
time Lord Gough waited for reinforcements, and felt the tardy arrival of
some of the troops whose presence had been detained before Mooltan, as
has already been shown.

The loss sustained by the Sikhs it is impossible to calculate; according
to themselves it was much less than that of the English; and this is
credible when the strength of their position is considered, and the
losses to which the unaccountable flight of Pope's brigade exposed the
British light. The English loss, according to the official returns,
was three thousand men in killed and wounded, nearly one-third of whom
belonged to the former class; this, however, did not comprehend all
the slain, for many were so horribly wounded by the close discharge of
artillery that they died in a few days. The proportion of the wounded
who were hit mortally was beyond that which usually occurs in battle.
There were also many desertions of Sepoy soldiers to Shere Singh, but
more especially of Sikh soldiery under Lord Gough's command.

The flight of the large body of cavalry under Brigadier Pop