ground, and the British troops remained masters of the field, but their loss was very heavy: twenty-six European officers and 731 men were killed; sixty-six officers and 1,446 men wounded. Four of our guns fell into the hands of the enemy, and five stand of colours; while the Sikhs, aided by the darkness of the night, were able to remove the greatest part of the guns which had been taken by us during the struggle.
The carnage of the battle of Chillianwallah, which was even more terrible on their side than on ours, did not break the spirit of these hard-fighting Sikhs, who were now supported by a body of 1,500 Affghan horse under Akram Khan, a son of Dost Mahommed. "For the first time," says the noble Governor-General,[1] "Sikhs and Affghans were banded together against the British power. It was an occasion which demanded the putting forth of all the means at our disposal, and so conspicuous a manifestation of the superiority of our armies as should appal each enemy, and dissolve at once their compact, by fatal proof of its futility."[2]
This conspicuous manifestation was given on the 21st of February, near the town of Goojerat, where the enemy were posted, with sixty thousand men and fifty-nine guns. Lord Gough, having a fair field and plenty of daylight, commenced the action with his artillery, and, after a sustained cannonade of three hours, compelled the Sikhs and Affghans to retire from the positions they had maintained with resolute hardihood. The subsequent advance of the whole British line soon drove them back from every point; and, retreat being converted into rout, they fled in the utmost disorder, "their ranks broken, their positions carried; their guns, ammunition, camp-equipage, and baggage captured; their flying masses driven before the victorious pursuers from mid-day to dusk, receiving most severe punishment in their flight."[3]
