The second war began at Multan in April 1848 with the killing of two British officers sent to replace Diwan Mulraj. It spread when Sher Singh Attariwala, sent to suppress the revolt, joined it, and when his father Chattar Singh raised the Hazara country and made an alliance with Dost Muhammad Khan of Kabul.
The main actions were Ramnagar in November 1848, Chillianwala on 13 January 1849, the fall of Multan on 22 January, and Gujrat on 21 February.
Chillianwala cost the British around 2,300 casualties and three sets of regimental colours and was received in London as a defeat. Gujrat was decided by artillery and ended the war.
The Sikh army surrendered at Rawalpindi on 14 March 1849. Punjab was annexed on 29 March by proclamation of Lord Dalhousie.
Within eight years the same soldiers, recruited into the Company's regiments, were fighting for it at Delhi. That fact governs how 1857 is read in Punjab and how Punjab is read in accounts of 1857.
Dalhousie wanted a pretext and said so in his private correspondence. The revolt at Multan gave him one, and the decision to annex rather than to restore was taken well before Gujrat was fought.
Ramnagar was a repulse, Chillianwala a check, Multan a long siege, and Gujrat in February 1849 the decision. The army surrendered at Rawalpindi in March.
The annexation followed at once. The Punjab was the last major territory taken in India and the Sikh state lasted fifty years from its founding to its end.