I was always puzzled by Robert E. Lee's praise of Lincoln. Do you suppose his pre-War relationship with the Triad men created a bias in his mind that extended even beyond the WBTS? That Lee was absolving Lincoln for the war crimes that he saw in other Union leaders? I have reconciled it to Lee not wanting to call names or implicate individuals as he always referred to his country's enemies as "those people". Never Lincoln, Sherman, Stoneman, etc.