A large frame house east of the hotel was about this time set on fire, it is believed, by the enemy to prevent us from using it as a shelter. I accordingly sent two of my staff officers with the necessary orders to move forward Gracie's brigade, while Colonel Fulton advanced Johnson's brigade under my eye, and the two batteries of our artillery still continued to play upon the enemy's lines in our front.

The advance in Gracie's brigade was made mainly by the Sixtieth Alabama Regiment, under Colonel Sanford, the Fifty-ninth and eight companies of the Forty third Alabama Regiments moving up as skirmishers on its right and rear. Captain Blakemore, my aide-de-camp, first conveyed to Colonel Sanford the order to advance about the time Johnston's brigade commenced moving. This regiment rushed forward gallantry, and with a shout passed the line of the Fifty-ninth and eight companies of the Forty-third Alabama Regiments deployed as skirmishers. In this movement the Sixtieth Alabama Regiment was exposed to the heavy fire of the enemy, concealed in the hotel, and of a line of Federals in the plain west of the hotel, and it consequently halted, and the men attempted to cover themselves by lying on the ground. The deliberate fire delivered with accuracy from the loop-holes of the hotel continually struck the men of the Sixtieth Alabama Regiment as they lay immovably on the ground, and when that regiment subsequently arose to advance again on the hotel, under orders conveyed to Colonel Sanford by Lieutenant Moorhead, Gracie's brigade inspector, it left its line marked out by the dead and wounded.

Johnson's brigade was now moving in a handsome line down the western slope of the hill east of the station and south of the Knoxville road. In this movement it was exposed to the fire of the enemy's cavalry in line of battle and to a battery of artillery in its front, and on passing the creek at the foot of the slope its line was enfiladed from the loop-holes of the hotel on its prolongation to the right. This brigade sought by lying down to secure the shelter afforded by the undulations of the ground, while the companies on the right fired on the hotel. The enemy's battery in front of Johnson's brigade retired as soon as that brigade descended below its range. The cavalry retired a little from the brow of the hill, but maintained their line. The Sixtieth Alabama Regiment, of Gracie's brigade, now arose and advanced on the right of the Knoxville road directly upon the hotel in the face of the fire from that building, and from a line of the enemy extending across the valley south of the hotel, which caused the regiment to take to the shelter of a large stable some 50 yards east of the hotel building, where it continued to return the enemy's fire. In this advance Colonel Sanford was knocked down by a shot, but afterward joined the regiment at the stable, where it had moved under command of Lieutenant Colonel D. S. Troy.

The Fifty-ninth and eight companies of the Forty-third Alabama Regiment, deployed as skirmishers, stretched from a point some distance to the right of the Sixtieth Alabama Regiment, and advanced somewhat later than that regiment on to the slope of the hollow north of the hotel. About this time Taylor's and Parker's batteries were directed to fire a few shots at the hotel, which was done. Some two shots were unfortunately fired by mistake into the stable occupied by the Sixtieth Alabama Regiment, by which 2 men are said to have been killed and 2 or 3 wounded.