Should Robert E. Lee be considered a war criminal?

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Honest question, not flaming. Are Southerners still sensitive about this [censored]?

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Yes.

Now for a serious answer to the OP's question. Lee should be considered a "war criminal" for prolonging the war (and thus causing more deaths) at the same time that Grant, Sherman, Lincoln, etc... are considered "war criminals" for invading a sovereign nation, ruthlessly killing innocent women and children, etc...

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Well, if that is the standard you apply, then I suppose you are making an argument that Lee should be considered a war criminal.

Again, had the South won a military victory, many of these figures probably would have been tried as war criminals. IIRC, while the war was ongoing, there were some calling Lincoln a war criminal (or the accepted equivalent for those times).

Also, at no time was the CSA a sovereign nation.

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I don't think Lincoln would have been tried as a war criminal, because the south wasn't fighting for control of the USA, they just wanted to be left alone.

I don't see how you can say that the CSA was not a sovereign entity. Each state withdrew from the USA and then created their own autonomous "nation". They were independent of the USA at that point. I have never seen a Constitutionally valid argument against their seceding from the USA.