The Colonel occupied that day a position of great importance and responsibility.  He commanded a brigade, consisting of two English and one sepoy regiments, the lancers, and a battery.  In addition, he was in command of the auxiliaries sent by the Maharajah of Chanidigot, and led by Prince Tasatat, consisting of one thousand infantry, five hundred cavalry, and one battery.  The Prince rode out magnificently attired and armed; the hilt and scabbard of his sword sparkled with precious stones, and a cockade of valuable diamonds flashed from his turban.  The bridling and caparison of his mount, a splendid chestnut, represented alone a small fortune.  His troops were also splendidly equipped, and displayed great confidence.  The horsemen carried long pikes, like the English lancers, and wore red turbans, striped with blue.  But many had been obliged to enter the lines of infantry in spite of their heavy boots, since a great number of horses, of the Mohammedan as well as the English cavalry, had died in consequence of bad fodder and over-exertion.

The movement of the British army was rather complicated.  The English forces were massed in two divisions between Shah Dara and the park of Shalimar.  The first comprised the Indian troops, officered by Englishmen; the second the English regiments.  In this way seventy-five thousand Indians were to be prevented from running away.  Should the first division be compelled to fall back, it would be checked by the twenty-five thousand English.  The advance march was commenced in such fashion that the right half of the line of battle, sweeping far round to the right, executed a left wheel, and in this way lengthened the front by about one-third; this was done in order to fill up the gap caused in the centre.  The second division was pushed forward into the first, and now formed the centre of the line of battle.  At the same time a new second division was formed by leaving in reserve troops of the advancing divisions and massing them behind the left wing of the entire position; the English considered their left wing to be most threatened.  Colonel Baird, with his brigade, occupied the centre of the front line of the main position.

Heideck watched many Indian regiments march past, and he could not help perceiving the difference of mood and carriage of Mohammedans and Hindus.  Whilst the first maintained a very energetic and very frequently cheerful attitude, the latter allowed the ends of their turbans to hang loose, as a sign of their despair, and marched dejectedly forward, face and head covered with ashes.  Morar Gopal’s conception of the fate in store for all Hindus evidently was shared by all.

The wide plain was covered with marching columns of infantry, hosts of cavalry, and heavy, thudding artillery.  Whilst the English foot soldiers, in their yellow-brown khaki dress, were hardly distinguishable from the colour of the ground, the cavalry regiments and the troops of the Indian princes looked like gaily coloured islets in the vast and surging sea of the army as it advanced in two divisions.