The orders to the infantry were, to advance with unloaded muskets and carry the first battery at the point of the bayonet. This was easily done, as the enemy only remained long enough to discharge two or three cannon-shots hastily, and then fell back to his second battery, nearer the town.
General Pike led the column forward at once to the second battery, which the enemy also abandoned, after spiking the guns. Here he discovered that the barracks, three hundred yards still nearer to the town, appeared to be evacuated. Suspecting that there might be some scheme on the part of the enemy for drawing him into a disadvantageous position, where a stand would be made, he halted at the second battery, and sent forward Lieutenant Riddle with a few men to find out the true state of affairs.
The Lieutenant found the barracks deserted, and was about to return with the information, when sud{ 103}denly the ground was shaken by a terrific explosion, and in a moment the air was darkened by flying boards, timbers, and stones, bars of iron, shells, and shot. The magazine, containing five hundred barrels of powder, had been blown up. It was situated in a little ravine, the bank of which protected Lieutenant Riddle's party, all of whom escaped. But a considerable number of the beams and masses of masonry, passing over their heads, fell within the battery. General Pike, who had just been removing a wounded prisoner to a place of safety, at the moment was seated on a stump, questioning a British sergeant who had been captured in the woods. As the shower of débris came down within the battery, the General was crushed to the earth by a section of stone wall, and two of his aides and the wounded sergeant were also struck down--all of them being fatally injured. By this explosion, fifty-two Americans were killed outright, and one hundred and eighty wounded. About forty British soldiers also, who were near the magazine, were killed.
General Pike being disabled, the command devolved upon Colonel Cromwell Pearce, who pushed on with his troops as soon as possible, though not in time to prevent the escape of the British General Sheaffe and all his regulars who remained unharmed. Sheaffe drew up terms of capitulation, and left { 104}them in the hands of the officer who commanded the militia. As the Americans approached the town, they were met by this officer with the offer to surrender, the capitulation to include the town and all government stores therein. While the parley was going on, Sheaffe destroyed most of the military stores, set fire to the war-vessel that was on the stocks, and made off, but his baggage and private papers were captured. Two hundred and ninety officers and men--of the British navy and militia--became prisoners and were paroled. General Pike had enjoined upon his soldiers the duty of protecting private property in the town, and given orders that marauding should be punished with death. His wishes were carefully observed; but the government buildings were burned.