Indians would escape. At 9:15 AM, while still about from the camp, he deployed his cavalry at a trot, organized as follows: the thirty Cheyenne and Lakota scouts led the way, followed by the 2nd Cavalry battalion consisting of about 160 soldiers. The 2nd Cavalry was ordered to charge into the Nez Perce camp. The 7th Cavalry battalion of 110 soldiers followed the 2nd as support on the charge into the camp. The 5th Infantry of about 145 soldiers, mounted on horses, followed as a reserve with a Hotchkiss gun and the pack train. Miles rode with the 7th Cavalry. Miles was following a tried and true tactic of the U.S. Army in fighting Plains Indians: attack a village suddenly and "shock and demoralize all the camp occupants—men, women, and children, both young and old—before they could respond effectively to counter the blow." However, the Nez Perce were warned by scouts of the approach of the soldiers a few minutes in advance. They were scattered, some gathering up the horse herd, west of the encampment, others packing to leave. Some men quickly gathered to defend the encampment while 50 to 60 warriors and many women and children rushed out of the village to attempt an escape to Canada. Miles's plan fell apart quickly. Rather than attacking the camp, the Cheyenne scouts veered to the left toward the horse herd, and the 2nd Cavalry, commanded by Captain George L. Tyler, followed them. The Cheyenne and Tyler captured most of the horse herd of the Nez Perce and cut off from the village about seventy men, including Chief Joseph, plus women and children. Joseph told his 14-year-old daughter to catch a horse and join the others in a flight toward Canada. Joseph, unarmed, then mounted a horse and rode through a ring of soldiers back into the camp, several bullets cutting his clothing and wounding his horse. Tyler's detour to the horse herd eliminated him from the van of the advancing soldiers and the main battle. He detached one company to chase the Nez Perce heading toward Canada. The company pursued the Nez Perce about five miles and then retreated as the Nez Perce organized a counterattack. Once the women and children were safely out of reach of the soldiers, some of the Nez Perce warriors came back to join their main force. While the Cheyenne, Tyler, and the 2nd Cavalry were