Tewodros, however, ordered an attack, and thousands of soldiers, many of them armed only with spears, charged the British positions. The British quickly deployed to meet the charging mass, and poured devastating fire into their ranks, including rockets from the Naval Brigade and Mountain gun artillery fire, as well as rifle fire. Of the rocket fire, Captain Hozier remarked "Many a charred mass and mangled heap showed how terrible was the havoc, how awful the death". During the fighting, an advance guard unit overpowered some of the Ethiopian artillery crews and captured their artillery pieces. After a 90-minute chaotic battle, the defeated Ethiopians retreated back to Magdala.