The Sikh army, the Khalsa, was led by some of the contenders for power in the Punjab and its own ambitions for independence and glory into crossing the Sutlej River into territory claimed by the British.

On 18 December, Lal Singh's advance guard was defeated at the untidy encounter Battle of Mudki.

Hardinge thought the odds against the British were too great, and wished to wait for the division from Ferozepur, under Major General Littler, to join the attack.

General Littler came under heavy fire, and believed only a rush with the bayonet would save his division from annihilation by the Sikh guns.

He sent word to the camp at Mudki that the state papers in his baggage were to be burned in this event, and gave his sword (a spoil of war which had once belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte) to his aide-de-camp.

Reforming their line, Gough and Hardinge advanced north-west and by noon they had driven Lal Singh's army from the field, in spite of heavy losses from the remaining Sikh artillery.

Hardinge privately criticised Gough's head-on tactics and sought to have him replaced, but no formal change of command could take place for several weeks, by which time events made it unnecessary.

The staff officer whose apparent blunder in sending the guns and cavalry away on the second day had actually saved Gough, a Captain Lumley who was the son of a General, was judged to have been driven temporarily insane by exhaustion and heatstroke and allowed to resign his commission, rather than face a court-martial.

Lal Singh was alleged to have sheltered in a ditch throughout the battle, and although this cannot be proved, it is clear that he took little active part.

Tej Singh had used the thinnest pretext to order a retreat when most of his officers and troops were eager to fall on the exhausted British and Bengali armies.