Battle of Shenkursk The Battle of Shenkursk , in January 1919 , was a major battle of the Russian Civil War . Following the Bolshevik victory at the Battle of Tulgas , the Red Army ' s next offensive action was against the Allied garrison of Shenkursk ; located on the Vaga River . Allied forces in Shenkursk and the surrounding villages included men primarily from the United States and the United Kingdom with support from the White Russians . The battle ended with an Allied retreat from Shenkursk ahead of a superior Bolshevik army . Battle . Company A , of the United States Army 339th Infantry made up the bulk of Allied forces protecting the Vaga River . American Captain Otto " Viking " Odjard was in command of about 200 men of the 339th and a remaining 900 British and White Russian troops . Odjard ' s headquarters was at Shenkursk though the majority of Americans were positioned in the nearby village of Vysokaya Gora . A small force of forty - six Americans , under Lieutenant Harry Mead , was stationed eighteen miles south of Shenkursk at the village of Nizhnyaya Gora which is where the Red Army under General Dimitri Nikolaevich Nadjoznyj struck first . At dawn on January 19 , concealed Bolshevik artillery opened up " a terrific bombardment " on the village . After an hour the shelling ceased and approximately 1 , 000 Bolsheviks assaulted the village with fixed bayonet s . Lieutenant Meade knew that his forty - six men had no choice but to retreat as fast as they could or else be massacred . The city streets were covered by enemy machine gun fire so using them meant certain death . Meade later wrote : " To withdraw we were compelled to march straight down the side of this hill , across an open valley some eight - hundred yards or more in the terrible snow , and under the direct fire of the enemy . There was no such thing as cover , for this valley of death was a perfectly open plain , waist deep in snow . To run was impossible , to halt was worse yet and so nothing remained but to plunge and flounder through the snow in mad desperation , with a prayer on our lips to gain the edge of our fortified positions . One by one , man after man fell wounded or dead in the snow , either to die from grievous wounds or terrible exposure . " Only seven men of the forty - six survived and they reached Vysokaya Gora only to be attacked again by the Bolsheviks . For five days the outnumbered Americans held Vysokaya Gora against repeated attacks from an enemy which now numbered over 3 , 000 men . The fighting took the form of heavy skirmishing and eventually the Russians began employing sniper s to harass the American lines instead of launching more bayonet charges against well defended fortifications . The snipers inflicted many additional casualties on the Allied soldiers , as well as shrapnel from repeated artillery bombardments . By January 24 , the survivors of Company A retreated to Shenkursk and arrived that afternoon . Some of the Americans were so weary of battle that they fell asleep as soon as they stopped marching . The Red Army was not far behind them though and they surrounded Shenkursk with the apparent intention of attacking the following morning . Captain Odjard then requested instructions from his commanding officer , British General Edmund Ironside in Archangel , who ordered Odjard to withdraw before being destroyed . There was only one avenue of escape that had not been occupied by the Bolsheviks , an old logging trail that lead north through the forest towards the village of Vystavka . So at midnight on January 24 , the garrison evacuated Skenkursk . About 100 of the most seriously wounded left first . They were fastened to sleds and sent down the road , pulled by horses . Those who could walk made the march on foot . Captain Odjard , who was wounded himself , feared that the Bolsheviks had placed snipers along the trail but there proved to be none and the garrison successfully escaped from Shenkursk without alerting the enemy . At this point the battle was over , the last shots fired were heard some ten miles away by the Allies at 8 : 00 am on January 25 . The fire was from Bolshevik artillery which was shelling Shenkursk , unaware that the Allies had already reatreated . When the garrison finally reached Vystavka on January 27 , they prepared defenses and withstood several Red Army attacks over the course of the next several weeks . The result of the engagement was important to the overall Bolshevik victory in the war . The Allies having been pushed away to the north , they were unable to launch offensive actions or combine their strength with a large army of White Russians heading west from Siberia . Instead the Allies were obligated to defend Vystavka .