Most of the statues in question were erected long after the Civil war (1910-20 was the peak period), precisely at the time that the KKK and segregationalists were most active.  The north, too, lost many people in the Civil war, yet strangely there are far fewer monuments to General Grant. 

Does Germany have monuments to Hitler and his cohorts? Were they not an important part of German history? What would we think if, suddenly, Germans were to begin erecting monuments to the Nazis? Would we simply say they were remembering their history?