AUSTIN, Texas — Just past the southern gates at the Texas State Capitol stands the Confederate Soldiers Monument, a symbol of the men who gave their lives in the name of the south.

Confederate President Jefferson Davis towers above them. That statue was erected nearly 40 years after the end of the Civil War.

"Jefferson Davis was seen in the 1910s and 20s not as a traitor, but as a courageous defender of white rule and that's what those statues were designed to maintain. Some of them even say that," says University of Texas history professor Jeremi Suri.

At the University of Texas campus, more confederate leaders are memorialized, including Robert E. Lee — a Virginia slave owner with an embattled view of slavery. After Lee surrendered at Appomattox, he became a voice for unity.

“When Southerners, and in this case many Texans like George Littlefield, want to make an argument that the war was an honorable cause and want to focus less on the issues of race and more on the issue of reconciliation after the war, Lee becomes a figure for them. He becomes a distraction,” says Suri.

Also on display at the UT mall is Confederate general Albert Sidney Johnston. Many historians believe Johnston's military prowess was equal, if not superior, to Lee's.

“Played a major role in the battle of Shiloh in 1862, April 1862. That’s a battle which on the first day the Confederates largely defeat Ulysses Grant’s army in Tennessee. In the second day, Ulysses Grant’s army was able to counter attack. It is in the first day of that battle that Albert Sidney Johnston is shot and actually dies,” says Lee.

Other Texan figures include a state on the UT campus of John H. Reagan, Postmaster General under Confederate President Jefferson Davis. After the Civil War, he was elected to the Senate, representing Texas. Sidney Lanier, the namesake of Lanier High School, served in the Confederate army but historians note he was a renowned poet and musician.

While these men may be long gone, their legacies survive today, for better or worse.