As someone who actually studied Winston Salem’s Civil War for both his PhD & MA I have thoughts. Some of the community in 1865 would have approved of the vandalism. There was so much anti-Confederate dissent during the Civil War that the CSA sent front line troops to suppress it.
For example, in Feb/Mar 1865 around 50 deserters and draft dodgers (recusant conscripts) were rounded up and sent to the front lines. Five men were summarily executed without a trial by a CSA Captain. He was later charged with murder but received a post war amnesty.
The local home guard (which apparently consisted of people not wanting to fight) were charged with rounding up deserters but were as likely to shoot themselves as they were deserters. When ordered to the front themselves, many Home Guard members fled when to Union lines.
A large number of residents fled North and spent the war in Hope, Indiana, Philadelphia, or other northern communities.
Additionally, local African Americans obviously widely supported the Union (I could do a whole thread on this topic some other time but let’s limit ourselves to white dissenters for the time being)...
People often think of these monuments as widely supported when they were erected but in addition to the vast majority of African American residents not all southern whites supported these monuments being put up.
