The arc of his postwar career was not one that encouraged a triumphal reading of what Appomattox had meant for him personally.

There is also the larger question of what his role at Appomattox represented in the context of American life.

It was remarkable.

It was historically significant.

It was also, in a very direct sense, an exception — a moment in which the usual barriers did not apply, enabled by his specific relationship with a specific man who happened to become the commanding general.

It did not change the legal status of Native Americans.