At the close of the First Sikh War in 1846 it was decided to conciliate the men of the defeated "Khalsa Army" and to enlist Sikhs in the Honourable East India Company's service. In April orders were issued to raise a Sikh irregular battalion, the Regiment of Ferozepore, for service with the Bengal Army of the East India Company. Ensign Brasyer claims to be the first to have collected Sikhs for the British forces and in his memoirs he writes: