Skirmish in Maine, on the sheltered side (5)
I believe the answer is:
melee
'skirmish' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'maine on the sheltered side' is the wordplay.
'maine' becomes 'me'.
'on' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'the sheltered side' becomes 'lee' (I've seen this before).
'me'+'lee'='MELEE'
'in' is the link.
(Other definitions for melee that I've seen before include "Confused brawl" , "Noisy riotous fight" , "Fracas" , "Scrimmage" , "A confused free-for-all" .)