Editing Pushmataha County, Oklahoma (section)

====The American Civil War====
During the [[American Civil War]] federal troops withdrew from the Indian Territory and the Choctaw Nation allied itself with the [[Confederate States of America]]. The Choctaw government sent a representative to the [[Confederate Congress]], meeting in the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, and raised battalions of warriors to participate with Confederate troops.

[[File:Peter perkins pitchlynn.jpg|left|220px|thumb| [[Peter Pitchlynn]], Principal Chief of the Choctaw Nation during the Civil War.]]

Although no battles were recorded as occurring within the present-day confines of Pushmataha County, the Battle of Perryville occurred just outside modern-day [[McAlester, Oklahoma|McAlester]] and the Battle of Middle Boggy Depot took place outside present-day [[Atoka, Oklahoma|Atoka]]. Numerous Choctaws left their homes in the present-day county to join the battalions and participated in the [[Battle of Pea Ridge]], in Arkansas, and at the [[Battle of Honey Springs]] in the Cherokee Nation, which pitted them against a Unionist faction of Cherokee Indians.

Contemporary accounts make mention of many refugees streaming through the Kiamichi River valley. The war itself finally ended with the surrender of the last Confederate army—Cherokee General [[Stand Watie]]'s forces, who surrendered at [[Fort Towson]] in June 1865, over two months after General [[Robert E. Lee]] surrendered the [[Army of Northern Virginia]]—and with it any chance of Confederate success.

{{Infobox song
| name       = Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
| cover      = SwingLowSweetChariot1873.jpg
| alt        =
| caption    = Page from ''The Jubilee Singers'', 1873
| type       =
| artist     = [[Fisk Jubilee Singers]] (earliest attested)
| album      =
| EP         =
| written    = Prior to 1862
| published  =
| released   =
| format     =
| recorded   =
| studio     =
| venue      =
| genre      = [[Spiritual (music)|Negro spiritual]]
| length     =
| label      =
| writer     = [[Wallace Willis]]
| composer   =
| lyricist   =
| producer   =
| prev_title =
| prev_year  =
| title      =
| next_title =
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}}

Sometime before 1862 a Negro slave, [[Wallace Willis]], composed the Negro spiritual "[[Swing Low, Sweet Chariot]]". He was then working at Spencer Academy, a Choctaw Nation boarding school located at [[Spencerville, Oklahoma|Spencervile, Indian Territory]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20060815/d_sweetchariot.art.htm|title=Story behind spiritual 'Swing Chariot' emerges|website=usatoday30.usatoday.com|access-date=December 4, 2018}}</ref><ref name="Tulsa World, January 28, 2019">{{cite web | url=https://www.tulsaworld.com/homepagelatest/michael-overall-how-an-oklahoma-slave-came-to-write-one/article_89101718-6427-5b56-bcb0-a17f798589be.html  | title= Michael Overall, How an Oklahoma slave came to write one of the world's most famous songs | publisher=Tulsa World, January 28, 2019| access-date=January 28, 2019}}</ref>  The site of the academy and old Spencerville was located less than 1,000 yards from the current southern border of Pushmataha County. Known as Uncle Wallace, Willis may have resided in Pushmataha County. He died in present-day [[Atoka County, Oklahoma|Atoka County]] and is buried in an unmarked grave.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}}