Nicholson and the rest of the British political officers throughout the Punjab spent the next few weeks attempting to fight the tide of the rebellion, but still awaiting support from Company troops and with the intervention of the Afghans into the conflict, they inevitably suffered a number of setbacks and Nicholson himself was seriously wounded while trying to storm a tower held by the Sikhs. By September 1848, Abbott and Nicholson were effectively on the run from the Sikh army and could only undertake limited action against them. However, with the arrival of the Company Field Army, which included Nicholson's younger brother Charles, to Lahore in November, the tide turned and the British were soon able to undertake offensive actions with Nicholson's irregular troops acting as the army's reconnaissance force and securing its supply lines. Nicholson fought in the subsequent Battle of Chillianwala and witnessed the Sikh's final surrender at the Battle of Gujrat before being tasked to chase the retreating Afghan army all the way back to the Khyber Pass. Following the complete annexation of the Punjab under the administration of the East India Company, Nicholson was appointed the new Deputy Commissioner at Rawalpindi. He soon set about imposing "law and order" in the region. In one incident, after placing a bounty on a particularly troublesome local robber chieftain failed to result in his arrest, Nicholson rode out alone to the man's village and demanded the chieftain surrender. When the chieftain refused this offer, Nicholson fought and killed him before decapitating his body. He then placed the man's head on his desk as a warning to all other criminals who may be tempted to commit similar violations.