why take down statues of civil war leaders?

8.17: pol/purges/alt-right/
why take down statues of civil war leaders?:
. my anti-"liberal" friend is annoyed with
the ones taking down statues of confederates;
"they were excellent military leaders
who should be honored!"
well, I've heard some say good things about
nazis too:
Hitler was not primarily about killing Jews;
they say he was about protecting Germans,
from evil bankers and communists.
. my friend objects to that comparison:
the nazis were genocidal murderers,
whereas the confederates
were fairly fighting a war;
well, the unfortunate fact is that
whether it is true or not,
the confederates are seen as
wanting independence from the union mainly to
protect the evil institution of slavery.
. and to protect slavery, they were willing to
kill as many people as needed to succeed;
so there is mass murder protecting slavery,
vs genocide;
I don't see much of a difference.
. statues are being taken down because
a fan of confederates
massacred an african-american church
just because he felt it is africans who are evil,
not enslaving confederates.
. I agree that collective punishment is not fair;
why abuse all pro-confederates,
just because one of them is a mass murderer?.
. it might also be true that there were
actually good reasons for
southern independence from the north
just like the north had good reasons
for independence from their mother country, UK;
I vaguely recall there were trade policies
that helped the north and hurt the south;
but protecting slavery is what destroyed them.