Confederate soldiers are US army veterans, by law. Their memorials must be treated as what they are, US veteran memorials.
That’s a factoid lost on the Jonah Goldberg brigade here
I never saw these south demonizers in my life till I came here including 82-88 in manhattan
They are neo conservatives but not entirely some are just plain libs
Frequently over the years they get zotted for social liberalism and then slink back in though today there are only a half dozen serious ones left two of whom are here
Anyone who believes it’s ok for us to honor our confederate ancestry as the govt did bestowing vets rights and presidents like Reagan and Trump have is considered a neoconfederate by them which is akin to white or Christian or any ethnic nationalist as opposed to civic nationalism which is their creed
Their bible is anything by Macpherson
They are regarded as US veterans for the purpose of veterans benefits (actually at the point the law was passed for the purpose of benefits for their veterans).
If they are buried in a National Cemetery, the federal government is authorized to provide headstones and maintain the graves.
That doesn't mean that the federal government said, "Okay, you are now US veterans" and it doesn't affect local monuments which are under local authority.
What's going on now is local communities want to remove local monuments and state governments are trying to prevent them. That gives "state's rights" a new twist. But if it's a town monument, it's up to the town.
I suggest leaving the statues standing and changing the inscriptions, so that "generic Confederate soldier" becomes "generic 1860s soldier" and we can pretend the soldier is whoever we want to.