But he does not appear to have built a public persona around it in the way that many Civil War veterans built their identities around their wartime experiences.

Part of this may have been temperament — Parker seems, from available accounts, to have been a reserved and precise man who did not incline toward self-promotion.

Part of it may have been a realistic assessment of how much his Appomattox role had actually changed his circumstances.

He had written the surrender terms.

He had subsequently been appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

And he had been investigated, politically attacked, and forced to resign from that position.