I was at Appomattox Court House recently, and am now a little confused. I understand that MG Custer burned 3 supply trains at Appomattox Station, 2 miles from Appomattox Court House, which really dug a stake into Lee's resolve.
However, in quite a few of the paintings Custer is portrayed as being present. As he was only a Division commander in the Army of the Shenandoah, and a Brevet MG at that, it seems like he wouldn't be there. The parlor is not spacious.
So, could have been there? If not, why was he in so many of the commencement paintings?
Got a link to any of these paintings? I've been a student of Custer for decades and don't recall ever seeing such, though i don't doubt that something of that sort exists. He was one of the most highly visible figures in the Union Army at the time and it's absolutely conceivable that artistic license took precedence over historical accuracy in some depictions of the event.
He could have been but he was not inside the McClean house for the signing, he was outside visiting with his West Point classmates who had left to serve in the Confederate forces.
Custer was commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division of the Army of the Potomac, one of the AoP's four highest ranking cavalry officers, and had a strong hand in the entire end game of Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia, not simply the destruction of the supply trains at Appomattox Station. No one would have questioned his presence in the room had he desired to be there.