Lee and his great lieutenants were operating in the East. The Confederate generals out West were horrible except for the few exceptions like Claiborne.
Good point. While the eastern theater is often described as decisive, it was really in the Western theater that the Confederacy lost the war. The fall of Vicksburg cut the Confederacy in half. The later defeats allowed Sherman to lead his troops on the “March to the Sea” and led directly to the result at Appomattox. Lee likely surrendered because he realized that even if he managed to move his army away from Appomatox, he would still be trapped between Grant’s army pursuing from the north and Sherman’s army coming up from the South through the Carolinas. His situation was hopeless precisely because of the Union success in the Western Theater.
Conversely, Union generals and leadership in the east faltered because of all the political appointments to hold everything together. The able and good generals like Grant and and Sherman rose in the west due to their ability and accomplishments because it was less political in that theater.