Following the Bolshevik loss at the Battle of Tulgas, the Red Army's next offensive action was against the Allied garrison of Shenkursk; located on the Vaga River.

Odjard's headquarters was at Shenkursk while the majority of Americans, including a section of field artillery consisting of two three-inch 18-pounders, were positioned in the nearby village of Vysokaya Gora.

A small force of forty-seven Americans, under Lieutenant Harry Mead, was stationed eighteen miles south of Shenkursk at the village of Nizhnyaya Gora.

[5] Finally, Meade ordered the retreat, only to find that the village's main street was 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.

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.

[8] Also that night, Lieutenant Douglas Winslow arrived from Shenkursk with men of the Canadian Field Artillery to take over the two three-inch guns from the White Russians who fled the battle earlier.

The fighting took the form of heavy skirmishing and eventually the Russians began employing snipers to harass the American lines instead of launching more bayonet charges against well defended fortifications.

On January 20 and 21, the Bolsheviks attacked repeatedly, suffering heavy casualties from the Canadian guns; they occupied the empty village of Ust Padenga, but made no progress against Vsyokaya Gora.

[12] Later that day a Soviet shell struck the lone remaining field gun, destroying it, killing a gunner, and injuring Captain Odjard, who was evacuated to Shenkursk.

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.