The Battle of Ferozeshah was fought on 21 December and 22 December 1845 between the British East India Company and the Sikh Empire, at the village of Ferozeshah in Punjab. The British were led by Sir Hugh Gough and Governor-General Sir Henry Hardinge, while the Sikhs were led by Lal Singh. The British emerged victorious.
Battle of Ferozshah (2nd Day), 22 December 1845 by Henry Martens
A group of officers during the Battle of Ferozeshah. Lithograph after an original sketch by Prince Waldemar of Prussia and published in 'In Memory of the Travels of Prince Waldemar of Prussia to India 1844-1846' (Vol.II).
Charge of the 3rd (King's Own) Light Dragoons at the Battle of Ferzshuhur [sic], 21 December 1845.
The Sikh fortified camp at Ferozeshah with the approaching British Army commanded by Sir Hugh Gough.
The Sikh Empire was a regional power based in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. It existed from 1799, when Maharaja Ranjit Singh captured Lahore, to 1849, when it was defeated and conquered by the British East India Company in the Second Anglo-Sikh War. It was forged on the foundations of the Khalsa from a collection of autonomous misls. At its peak in the 19th century, the empire extended from Gilgit and Tibet in the north to the deserts of Sindh in the south and from the Khyber Pass in the west to the Sutlej in the east as far as Oudh. It was divided into four provinces: Lahore, which became the Sikh capital; Multan; Peshawar; and Kashmir from 1799 to 1849. Religiously diverse, with an estimated population of 4.5 million in 1831, it was the last major region of the Indian subcontinent to be annexed by the British Empire.
The expanding Sikh Empire in 1809. The Cis-Sutlej states are visible south of the Sutlej River
Ranjit Singh holding court in 1838
The Indian subcontinent in 1805.
Detail from ‘Darbar (royal court) of Maharaja Ranjit Singh’, gouache, ca.1850