So people who die for something they had no part in cuaaing, and are doing it for a variety of reasons.
While the people forcing them were bad people...
There were Union Volunteer units from Southern states, who remained loyal to the Union, and Union loyalists who stayed in the South behind the lines.
The South has Civil War Hero's, but they didn't take orders from the Confederacy.
People had options not to fight for the Confederates, and not everyone from the south chose to fight for slavery.
Those who chose to fight for the Confederacy, instead of opposing it either by acting behind the lines, or fleeing to join volunteer units in the North, choose the wrong side and their legacy will not be one of honor or dignity because of what happened during, and after, the war.
The Post-Civil War context does not disappear just because you want to treat the 'war dead' with 'soldiers honor', and the legacy of the KKK/Daughters of the Confederacy is not one to be ignored just because it hurts the 'honor among soldiers' image some want to cling to.
So you would have rather had military occupation of the south to a degree that would have most likely led to riots and protests, worse then we had, and potentially another shooting war?
Add in that Dem presidents never helped and only made things worse.
I think if Lincoln's VP and successors had not been so afraid of the likes of the KKK and friends, it would have been a few years/decade of unrest before the forces from the Western States were moved in to finish the job, with any diehards ending up at the end of Custer's Cav regiments, since I doubt he would have been sent to fight the Indians if Confederate holdouts were causing trouble.
Edit: A President Custer could have been a real possibility if Reconstruction had kept going and he hadn't been sent to fight the Indians.
The KKK and friends power however has waned so much that the Lost Cause mythology no longer has any friends in power thanks to people like MLK, and this is the results manifesting decades after they should have already happened.
Removing any monuments leads to more for what ever reasons.
History is full of horrible shit.
Soldiers that fight should still get respect.
Unless they themselves committed atrocities.
Soldiers do not get respect if the cause they fight for is horrible enough, and they resort to terrorism against their former slaves after the war, while pushing Jim Crow laws to try to create 'legal slavery' in all but name.
17 year old German soldier in 45? Did they themselves gas jews?
What about the 45 year old Mazi Prison camp director....
Should they be treated the same?
A 17 yo in Germany had even less chance to surrender or flee than people in the South did, as desertion was pretty easy during the ACW so fleeing north to join Union forces was way more feasible than surrendering with SS goons to your back.
