12349876: Remembering the unknown soldiers especially conscripted is a heck of a lot more honorable than the rich general traitors who had a clear choice.  The latter make up the vast majority if the statues.

Came here to say exactly that.

A memorial to unknown soldiers who never came home is probably one of the few I wouldn't genuinely have an issue with (along with at respective battlefields and such).

Also, the 700+ statues all over were pretty clearly a 'f you' put up in the early 1900s during the 1st major rise of the Klan as part of a deliberate campaign to venerate and ennoble the Confederacy with its 'Lost Cause' narrative.  Statues in the town square is to venerate, not a history lesson.  *Maybe* if they were part of a statue garden that included slaves, someone from the Union, etc. then that story would pass muster.

Or, to put it another way, isn't it awfully suspicious how many more statues of Confederates there are than any other group in this country, including, it seems, the founding fathers? *   Or that so many states, including the ones that didn't exist in 1860-1865 have a damn highway named after the president of the Confederacy?

*One list I found had George Washington at about 200 memorials (not just statues), and its hard to imagine anyone else in that group getting nearly as many, nationwide, so I am being presumptive about the numbers here.