Did the north or the south have better generals during the civil war?

The South had some of the best officers who had quit the US Army, but these did not always make good Generals. They tended to be aggressive, unruly characters who feuded fiercely between themselves. John Bell Hood, for example, was a magnificent fighting leader, promoted too high for his talents, and he led his army to disaster.

The Lee-Jackson partnership was legendary (until Stonewall's death), but Grant did out-general Lee in the end.

Sherman had meanwhile discovered an entirely new kind of warfare in his March to the Sea, which shortened the war by months, at almost nil casualties.

Many of the Confederate Generals have since been bathed in the flatterng light of Lost Cause mythology (a quality that has sometimes been called 'Wrong but Wromantic'). But they did generate a more appealing legend than the Union leaders.