<P> The final large - scale military uprising in the Punjab took place on 9 July, when most of a brigade of sepoys at Sialkot rebelled and began to move to Delhi . They were intercepted by John Nicholson with an equal British force as they tried to cross the Ravi River . After fighting steadily but unsuccessfully for several hours, the sepoys tried to fall back across the river but became trapped on an island . Three days later, Nicholson annihilated the 1,100 trapped sepoys in the Battle of Trimmu Ghat . </P> <P> The British had been recruiting irregular units from Sikh and Pakhtun communities even before the first unrest among the Bengal units, and the numbers of these were greatly increased during the Rebellion, 34,000 fresh levies eventually being raised . </P> <P> At one stage, faced with the need to send troops to reinforce the besiegers of Delhi, the Commissioner of the Punjab (Sir John Lawrence) suggested handing the coveted prize of Peshawar to Dost Mohammed Khan of Afghanistan in return for a pledge of friendship . The British Agents in Peshawar and the adjacent districts were horrified . Referring to the massacre of a retreating British army in 1842, Herbert Edwardes wrote, "Dost Mahomed would not be a mortal Afghan...if he did not assume our day to be gone in India and follow after us as an enemy . Europeans cannot retreat--Kabul would come again ." In the event Lord Canning insisted on Peshawar being held, and Dost Mohammed, whose relations with Britain had been equivocal for over 20 years, remained neutral . </P> <P> In September 1858 Rae Ahmed Nawaz Khan Kharal, head of the Khurrul tribe, led an insurrection in the Neeli Bar district, between the Sutlej, Ravi and Chenab rivers . The rebels held the jungles of Gogaira and had some initial successes against the British forces in the area, besieging Major Crawford Chamberlain at Chichawatni . A squadron of Punjabi cavalry sent by Sir John Lawrence raised the siege . Ahmed Khan was killed but the insurgents found a new leader in Mahr Bahawal Fatyana, who maintained the uprising for three months until Government forces penetrated the jungle and scattered the rebel tribesmen . </P>

Revolt of 1857 sepoy mutiny or first war of independence