usertron2020
Donor
I think the proper question should be whether Jefferson Davis, not Lee, should have surrendered.
But yes, the South should have thrown in the towel after Lincoln's reelection, for that event made clear that the Confederacy had absolutely no chance left. Interestingly, when John C. Breckinridge was brought in as Secretary of War in January of 1865, he made it his mission to prepare for the surrender he saw as inevitable and to persuade Davis (a man not very open to persuasion) that he should give up the fight and flee the country. When Breckinridge sent a circular around to the main military commanders and department bureau chiefs, Lee responded to Breckinridge by saying that they needed to seek terms with the enemy as quickly as possible.
This was why after the war was over Davis was so reviled North & South as the villain of the war. Getting caught wearing his wife's shawl (though not her dress, as Northern newspapers and their cartoonists thrilled to report) didn't help.