was that they didn't want any reminders laying around of "government overthrow" or the like so we useless eaters wouldn't get any ideas. What other reason could there possibly be?

Civil war heroes were what the statues were. Confederate Generals and shit. The people that (according to history) stood up to the government and became their own countty. Those were the people the statues were of. Lee, Grant, and so on. People who stood up against the government (allegedly) No it's not a big deal, I just had to do a hundred hours of community service for "littering" at sixteen years old, my very strict mom didn't even ground me because even SHE thought it was stupid. Then, BLM (or whatever they called themselves) were destroying all of these by spray painting them all completely. 100×5 (minimum wage roughly then)= $500 for.the community service. Obviously they would NEVER admit they were wrong even if they are and I'll never even get an apology for all of my wasted time, so I don't have any illusion, it's just a real pisser.