My friend Pollard becomes particularly unamiable at this critical passage in the history of "The Lost Cause," and declares that "Grant was not shamed. The Moloch of the North had not yet been sated." This romancing writer was dissatisfied with poor' Grant, because he would not go back to the Rapidan. McClellan was a good fellow, in his estimation, for he did not keep "hammering," and after he had fought a drawn battle, like that at Antietam, he did not vex the chivalrous Lee by running after him when he "retired." "Grant was not shamed," as McClellan used to be after he had fought a battle. Doubtless Grant ought to have been "shamed," and gone back like a good boy, and not have been so ridiculous as to propose to fight it out on that line, if it took all summer. That "Moloch of the North" was an awful fellow, bound to be "sated" only when the Rebellion fell through. My dearly-beloved friend Pollard is also vexed at the generalship of Grant, and prates about "the fierce and brutal consumption of human life." I am inclined to think he believes in the checker-board theory of carrying on war; but the sum total of Grant's sins was, that he did not retreat, and give Lee time to recruit and strengthen his position. My friend persistently forgets that these hard knocks in the end used up the rebel army, and introduced him, as a writer, to his subject, "The Lost Cause." Though the end does not always justify the means, it did in this instance, fully and unequivocally. Though the national army had in these six days lost thirty-five thousand men, in killed, wounded, and missing, the destruction in the rebel ranks could not have been greatly less, in spite of the advantages under which it was engaged. If Grant had retired, and left Lee to recuperate the pluck of his army by proclaiming his victory, and to recruit his exhausted forces, the results of these tremendous battles would have been lost to the loyal cause. As it was, they ground in upon the spirits of the rebel army, and produced their proper share of the effect which finally resulted in the overthrow of the Rebellion. Pollard knows very well if Grant had turned back, the Confederacy would have obtained a new lease of life; and he frets because the illustrious soldier would not oblige Lee in this respect. On Thursday, Hancock made a sudden attack, surprising the rebels, capturing one entire division, two brigades of another, and thirty guns, the number of prisoners being between three and four thousand. This was a decided success. Generals Johnson and G.H. Stuart were captured. Hancock extended his hand to Stuart, whom he had known before, exclaiming, "How are you, Stuart?" But the rebel was haughty and "airy," and replied, "I am General Stuart, of the Confederate army, and under present circumstances I decline to take your hand." "Under any other circumstances I should not have offered it," added Hancock, with coolness and dignity.