Bowles was sent with the 1st Battalion of Maryland Loyalist as part of a provincial garrison stationed at Pensacola, where he was stripped of his rank for insubordination. (According to the article on William Augustus Bowles, he joined the British Battalion at the age of 13.) He fled north, living among the Muscogee of the Tallapoosa and Appalachicola, becoming fluent in the language, taking Cherokee and Hitchiti Muscogee wives and becoming heir to a Muscogee chiefdom.
Bowles was sent with the 1st Battalion of Maryland Loyalists as part of a provincial garrison at Pensacola, where he lost his rank for insubordination. (According to the article on William Augustus Bowles, he joined the British Battalion when he was thirteen years old.) He fled north and lived among the Muscogee people, mastering their language, marrying Cherokee and Hitchiti Muscogee women, and becoming heir to a Muscogee chiefdom.