By late September, the Nez Perce, numbering less than 800, including 200 warriors, had travelled more than one thousand miles and fought several battles in which they defeated or held off the U.S. army forces pursuing them. In the most recent of those battles, on September 13, the Nez Perce eluded the attempt of Colonel Samuel D. Sturgis to capture them at the Battle of Canyon Creek near present-day Billings, Montana. However, the Crow and Bannock scouts of Sturgis captured about 400 of the Nez Perce horses which slowed them in their race for the Canadian border.