The phrase is correct and usable in written English.
It is usually used to mean a sudden or brief attack, raid, or foray. For example, you could say, "In the dead of night, the soldiers made a sortie to the enemy camp."
South Korea make a sortie down the other end, Park Chu-young haring down the left - but he runs the ball out of play.
The alarm was instantly given, and the troops rushed to the wall, not knowing the nature of the danger, owing to the dark night and stormy weather; the Plataeans in the town having also chosen that moment to make a sortie against the wall of the Peloponnesians upon the side opposite to that on which their men were getting over, in order to divert the attention of the besiegers.
When famine pressed hard upon them — for they were surrounded by a trench and breastwork and four camps — they begged the general to allow them to engage him, so that he might slay them like men, and, when their request was refused, they determined to make a sortie.
Although this angered some of the townspeople to the point where the militia requested permission to make a sortie, Leyba refused, and the attackers eventually withdrew and headed north, destroying crops, livestock, and buildings as they went.
Victor could not allow the Cádiz garrison, which still numbered about 13,000 men, to make a sortie against his lines while he was threatened from outside, so on the night of 3 4 March he sent six companies of voltigeurs to storm the bridgehead entrenchments and prevent a breakout.
Gansevoort's besieged men took advantage of the absence of a sizable part of St. Leger's force to make a sortie, in which Gansevoort's second-in-command, Marinus Willett, led 250 men out and looted the nearly empty Indian camps of "several wagon-loads of spoils", including John Johnson's orderly book, plans for the expedition, and a letter the British had intercepted from Gansevoort's fiancée.
John Goodman and Billy Crystal voice Sulley and Mike, two scary monsters who enter the bedroom via a closet door, like Aslan and Mr Tumnus making a sortie outside Narnia.
The defenders of the city made a sortie to attack the besieging army, but were overwhelmed and the crusaders poured through the open gates of the city.
Seol Ki-hyeon is looking a bit spritely and makes a sortie into Turkey's box but he has to slide into a weak shot.
This they do by entering their bedrooms via the closet door, like a freaky Aslan and Mr Tumnus making a sortie outside Narnia.
The Mitylenians made a sortie with all their forces against the Athenian camp; and a battle ensued, in which they gained some slight advantage, but retired notwithstanding, not feeling sufficient confidence in themselves to spend the night upon the field.
