and they fell back to a ravine at Garrison Creek north of the fort, where the militia was forming up. American forces advanced east towards the fort, and assembled themselves outside its walls, exchanging artillery fire with the fort. The naval squadron also bombarded the fort, having re-positioned themselves directly south of the fort's stockade. Sheaffe decided that the battle was lost and ordered the regulars to retreat, setting fire to the wooden bridge over the River Don east of the town to thwart pursuit. The militia and several prominent citizens were left "standing in the street like a parcel of sheep". Sheaffe instructed the militia to make the best terms they could with the Americans, but without informing the senior militia officers or any official of the legislature, he also dispatched Captain Tito LeLièvre of the Royal Newfoundland to set fire to the sloop-of-war HMS Sir Isaac Brock under construction at York's Naval Shipyard and to blow up the fort's magazine. The two sides continued to exchange artillery fire until Sheaffe's withdrawal from the fort was complete. The British had left the flag flying over the fort as a ruse, and the Americans assembling outside its walls assumed that the fort was still occupied. By 1:00 pm, the Americans were from the fort, and their artillery and the naval squadron were preparing to bombard it. Pike was questioning a prisoner as to how many troops were defending the fort. Shortly after the bombardment began, the magazine (which contained over 74 tons of iron shells and 300 barrels of gunpowder and had been rigged by the British to explode) blew up. The explosion threw debris over a radius. General Pike and 37 other American soldiers were killed by the explosion, which caused an additional 222 casualties. Fearing a counterattack after the explosion, American forces regrouped outside the wall, and did not advance onto the abandoned fort until after the British regulars had left the settlement. Casualties The American loss for the entire battle was officially reported as 52 killed and 254 wounded for the Army and 3 killed and 11 wounded for the Navy, for a total of 55 killed and 265 wounded. The majority of American casualties originated from the explosion at the fort's powder magazine. An archaeological dig in 2012 unearthed evidence that the destruction of the magazine and the impact it had on American soldiers was a