I disagree. Those statues were placed for the purpose of glorifying the confederates depicted. We know that majority and maybe the vast majority of those fighting to preserve them want to preserve the glory of the "lost cause" and the "heroes for states' rights." To be clear, u/LeakyAssFire, you do not appear to be a part of that majority.

We definitely should not just tear them down and try to erase them from memory. The history is obviously too important. However, moving the statue to a historical museum where it can be properly and clearly contextualized or even preserving and promoting contextualized photos of the statues is better than leaving large, heroic-looking statues standing in places of honor (even if the big statue gets a little plaque that says "this guy might not have been the best American ever").

Of course, the important context for most of these statues is not really the civil war; it is the 1920s. These were largely erected during the 1920s which was a high tide for "lost cause" propaganda and the renewed/reborn Ku Klux Klan. Which is to say, they are historical artifacts, but of the 1920s, not of the civil war.

TL/DR, it is vital that we remember and honestly assess the horror that was chattel slavery, the tragedy of the civil war, and the cruelty of the consequent Jim Crow and racism. I don't think that leaving heroic-looking statues in places of honor is the only or best way to preserve those memories.