skirmish

• It seemed but a moment, when we halted, red and panting, in the paltry Court House village of Hanover; the field-pieces hurled a few shells at the escaping Confederates, and the men were ordered to dismount It seemed that a Confederate picket had been occupying the village, and the creek memorized by the skirmish was an outpost merely. —  Campaigns of a Non-Combatant, and His Romaunt Abroad During the War
• Last year they had a skirmish, and the Touaricks killed about eighty of the Shâanbah. —  Travels in the Great Desert of Sahara, in the Years of 1845 and 1846
• This, however, was a mere skirmish--the grand battle was, How was drunkenness to be put down Mr Lawson's plan was: If four-fifths of the ratepayers of any district were agreed that no spirituous liquors should be sold there, that such should become a law, and no licence for their sale should be issued. —  Cornelius O'Dowd Upon Men And Women And Other Things In General
• Thus every day brought a battle or a skirmish, and its accession to the list of sick and wounded; and for a period of about three weeks, until Warrenton Junction was reached, the national army had no base of operations, nor any reinforcements or supplies. —  Woman's Work in the Civil War A Record of Heroism, Patriotism, and Patience
• Notwithstanding their professions of gratitude, however, these rascals stole as many small articles front the waggons as they could lay hands on, and would doubtless have taken all that the hunters possessed, if they had not been impressed by their valour, and by the dreadful firearms which they carried This accidental skirmish was the first meeting of the colonists with the Fetcani. —  The Settler and the Savage

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