Your claim is inaccurate. The statue was not put up when Lee was a hero. It was commisioned in 1917, and put up in 1924.
I fully support Sen. Cory Booker(D-NJ)’s bill to remove all Confederate statues from the US Capitol, and place them in the Smithsonian museum.
I’m aware that these are historical relics. That’s the point. Historical relics belong in a museum.