The Boy in the Barrel: A Future Pirate's First Ship

"A branch of a tree his mast, a blanket his sail."

by Dale Cox

Editor's note: To provide readers with more information about William Augustus Bowles, the real person behind the pirate treasure stories still heard in eastern Jackson County, Florida, historian and author Dale Cox is writing a series of new articles. The life and adventures of Bowles and his crews will be commemorated on May 1-2 during Pirate & Heritage Days at Three Rivers State Park.

The signing of a declaration of war against Spain at Estiffanulga Bluff in 1800 (please see GOD SAVE MUSKOGEE: Pirate War on the Apalachicola) brought the enigmatic adventurer William Augustus Bowles into direct conflict with that country. But who was Bowles? And how did his story begin?

The future adventurer and pirate was born in Maryland in ca. 1763 and was thirteen when war erupted between Great Britain and its American colonies. "An artless school-boy, perfectly unacquainted with any mode of life beyond what he had learnt at his father's farm," according to the interviewer who wrote his autobiography, Bowles joined a Loyalist regiment and entered the service of King George III. 

The Battle of Monmouth, where Bowles claimed to fight in a
"flank company." From a painting by Emanuel Leutze.
Berkley Library

He claimed to serve in a "flank company" at the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey, before sailing with his regiment from New York to Jamaica. This is possible as his regiment was part of the British army at that time. From Jamaica, he sailed with his fellow soldiers to Pensacola where he arrived late in 1778. Bowles was selected as a cadet at Pensacola, a position that allowed him to train to become an officer, but he blew his chances after he failed to return to camp from a brief leave in town. He either deserted or was dismissed from the service.

Destitute and only around 15 years old, the young man was, to paraphrase his biographer, too proud to beg and unwilling to work:

A party of the Creek nation were on their return home from Pensacola, whither they had come to receive their annual presents; and young Bowles, delighted with the novelty of situation now opened to him, joined the party, having thrown his regimental coat, in contempt of his oppressors, into the sea. [1]

Pensacola Bay at Floridatown.

The Native Americans were Seminoles from the Perryman towns on the lower Chattahoochee River. The most important of these communities was Tocktoethla, the village of Thomas Perryman which stood in today's Seminole County, Georgia. The other was Tellmochesses, the town of his son, William Perryman. It stood near Parramore Landing in modern Jackson County, Florida.

Bowles was accepted by the Perryman chiefs and their followers. Both Thomas and William spoke English, as did many of their followers, so it was easy for the young man to talk with them. Thomas Perryman, in particular, liked Bowles. The teenager was restless, though, and remained with his new friends only a few months before he decided to return to Pensacola:

William Augustus Bowles.

When he arrived on the opposite shore of the bay, he found a hogshead [i.e. barrel], which some British ships had left behind them; and Bowles, impatient of delay, without waiting for any other conveyance, like an Eskimaux [i.e. Eskimo], with the difference of a hogshead for a boat, the branch of a tree his mast, a blanket his sail, and a few stones his ballast, navigated the extensive shores of the harbour, in the day procuring the food of life, and beguiling the tediousness of time by fowling and fishing, and at night regaling on his prey; the sky his canopy, and the earth his bed. [2]

The sight of the future pirate bobbing around Pensacola Bay in a barrel with a blanket for a sail must have been entirely novel. His return to Pensacola likely was via the Pensacola-St. Augustine Road, a horse path that connected the capitals of the colonies of East and West Florida. Branch trails from it led to the Perryman towns, while its western terminus was at today's Floridatown in Santa Rosa County.

Bowles continued his adventures around the bay into the winter of 1779-1780, a time during which his biographer admitted that the young man first developed his dreams of glory.

Note: Learn more about the life of William Augustus Bowles in future articles and mark your calendar now to attend Pirate and Heritage Days at Three Rivers State Park in Sneads, Florida, on May 1-2, 2020. Please click here for more information.

Alcatraz documentary premieres tonight in Columbia, Alabama

"Escape to the Wiregrass" to be unveiled!

by Rachael Conrad

The film premieres tonight (Monday, 10/21, 6:30 p.m.) at the
Houston County High School Cafeteria in Columbia, Alabama.

A former dean of Troy University and former Jackson County Sheriff John P. McDaniel are among those who appear in a new documentary set to premiere tonight in Columbia, Alabama!

"Alcatraz: Escape to the Wiregrass" is a feature-length film that explores the links between the Wiregrass area of Southeast Alabama, Southwest Georgia, and Northwest Florida and the 1962 "Escape from Alcatraz." The documentary is funded by Two Egg TV and made possible through the research of historian and author Dale Cox, who produced the film. It unveils new information about the fates of inmates Frank Lee Morris, Clarence Anglin, and John Anglin. The trio paddled their makeshift raft away from Alcatraz prison on June 11, 1962.

Dr. Adair Gilbert, formerly of Chipola College and Troy
University, in a scene from the new documentary.

Among those featured in the program is Dr. Adair Gilbert, Ph.D. As a child, she witnessed the Anglin brothers robbery of the Bank of Columbia, Alabama. Dr. Gilbert later served as Director of Business and Technology at Chipola College and Dean of the School of Business at Troy University. In the documentary, she remembers what she saw from a drugstore across the street where she was enjoying a soda when the infamous robbery took place. 

Columbia historian David Hunter, retired business leaders, and others tell their stories in the documentary - many of them for the first time.

Another recognizable face in the film is that of John P. “Johnny Mac” McDaniel, the retired sheriff of Jackson County, Florida. He unexpectedly became involved in the Alcatraz case many years after the 1962 escape and tells his story on camera for the first time! 

Tourism expert Heather Lopez and historian Dale Cox peer
into the Bank of Columbia building, scene of the 1958
Anglin brothers robbery, during a visit to Columbia, Alabama.

The film breaks new ground in its exploration of possible links between crimes in Marianna, Florida, and Brundidge, Alabama, to the Alcatraz escapees. Both crimes took place AFTER the Alcatraz escape. Jackson County eyewitness Robert Earl Standland remembers a 1963 bank robber in Marianna and historian Dale Cox discusses the Brundidge incident.

Although he now lives near the beloved community of Two Egg, Florida, Cox was born in the same town as the Anglin brothers. He unexpectedly stumbled into a new investigation by the U.S. Marshals Service in the 1980s and shares inside information from the case for the first time. He has researched the Alcatraz escape and what became of the three escapees for thirty years and now tells the whole story of what he has found. Especially compelling are his memories of contacts on several occasions with a man who may have been one of the escapees.

The documentary features locations in Jackson County, Florida; Seminole and Early Counties, Georgia; Houston and Pike Counties, Alabama – not to mention San Francisco, California; Kansas City, Missouri; Brazil, and the Bahamas!

 

“Alcatraz: Escape to the Wiregrass” premiers TONIGHT (Monday, 10/21/2019) at the Houston County High School Cafeteria in Columbia, Alabama. This exclusive, one-time showing takes place at 6:30 p.m. Central/7:30 p.m. Eastern and is appropriate for all ages. Future plans for additional showings will be announced soon.

Two Egg TV is a free, streaming history and travel channel. You can watch on YouTube at www.youtube.com/twoeggtv, online at www.twoeggflorida.com, and on television by adding the Two Egg TV channel to your Roku-enabled smart tv or Roku device. 

Newly discovered map shows key Creek Indian villages on Chattahoochee (Part 3)

Portion of the Woodbine Map of 1814
showing the Chattahoochee River in
Southwest Georgia and Southeast Alabama.
National Archives of Great Britain
(Click the map to enlarge)

This is the third part in a series of four articles about the newly discovered Woodbine Map of 1814.

Located in the National Archives of Great Britain, the map is believed to have been drawn by Capt. George Woodbine of the British Royal Marines.

The captain was the advance officer for a planned landing of British Royal Marines in Spanish Florida. The War of 1812 was then underway and the British were coming to enlist maroons (runaway slaves) and Native American warriors forplanned attacks against Mobile, New Orleans and the southern United States.

The map is remarkably narrow and long so it has been necessary to break it into four parts for this series.  If you missed the two earlier articles, you can read them here before continuing with this post:

Part 1: Map reveals details of Jackson County's Native American population.
Part 2: New details from 1814 British map of Apalachicola & Chattahoochee Rivers.


In today's segment, we look at the section of the map that covers the lower Chattahoochee River in Alabama and Georgia.

Admiral Sir Alexander Inglis Cochrane
He sent Capt. Woodbine to the Apalachicola River
with orders to make contact with as many Creek
and Seminole groups as possible.
National Gallery of Scotland

Beginning at the bottom of the map, you will notice the Creek Indian village of "Red Ground" on the left or west bank of the Chattahoochee. This village stood at today's Neals Landing Park in what is now Jackson County, Florida. This is where State Road 2 crosses the river to connect Malone, Florida, with Donalsonville, Georgia.

The creek shown on the west side just above the village is Irwin's Mill Creek, which rises just across the state line in Houston County, Alabama, and then flows southeast through Chattahoochee State Park to cross the Florida border and empty into the river a short distance north of State Road 2.

Moving upriver you will next see the location of the ancient Lower Creek village of "Chiskee Tallofa" (Chiscatalofa or Chisca Town).

The Chisca were living in Northwest Florida when first encountered by the Spanish and the Purcell-Stuart Map of 1778 shows an area surrounding the town of Ekanachatte or "Red Ground" as the Chisca Old Fields, an indication that this had been their home-site at some point in the past.

Portion of the Purcell-Stuart Map of 1778 showing the
"Cheeske Old Field" adjacent to Ekanachatte.
National Archives of Great Britain

Some speculate that the Chisca were the ancestors of the better known Yuchi (or Euchee), but this remains an unproved theory. It is known that they were bitter enemies of the Spanish and joined with the neighboring Chacato to rebel against Franciscan missionaries in 1675. They successfully drove Spanish friars from their territory, but were defeated in a retaliatory attack. Some went to live in the area around Pensacola Bay while the main group of Chisca moved up into the Lower Creek towns, took part in the migration of that group to the Ocmulgee and Savannah Rivers. The Chisca joined with the rest of the Lower Creeks in migrating back to the Chattahoochee River in 1716-1718. From that point on Chiscatalofa was regarded as one of the principal towns of the Lower Creeks.

The town had been the scene of one of the councils that approved the massive Forbes Purchase of 1804. That agreement transferred 1.2 million acres of land from the Creek Nation to John Forbes & Company as payment for debts owed to the company. It included most of today's Apalachicola National Forest.

From "Chiskee Tallofa" continue to follow the river north. The creek shown entering from the west just above the town was Bryan's Creek in present-day Houston County, Alabama. A small settlement or village is marked by the circular symbol on the south side of the creek's mouth.

On the Georgia side of the river will next be seen the village of the "Conoloah Tribe." This town was located adjacent to a natural spring that flows into the Chattahoochee at a point just south of the border between today's Seminole and Early Counties.

The next town encountered as you continue to trace your way up the river is "Emassee Town" (Omussee Talofa). The name Omussee remains in use today in eastern Houston County, Alabama. Omussee Creek flows into the Chattahoochee river just south of Columbia, Alabama.

The Omussee of 1814, however, was located well-south of that point in the vicinity of today's Gordon, Alabama.

Like the Chisca, the Omussee were an ancient town. Their name is better known in the history of Florida and Georgia as Yamassee. These people were encountered by the Hernando de Soto expedition as it passed through Georgia and later allied themselves with the British and took part in slave-catching raids against the Apalachee and other groups in Florida.

The Yamassee joined with the Lower Creeks and other groups to rise up against the British in 1717 but were defeated. Most fled south to the St. Augustine area of Florida where they formed an alliance with the Spanish, but one group wound up living among the Lower Creeks on the Chattahoochee River. They remained there until they were forced west on the Trail of Tears in 1836.

Several unnamed small villages are shown on the river above "Emassee Town." Finally, the Cedar Creek shown flowing into the Chattahoochee from the west still bears that name today and is located just north of Gordon, Alabama.

I will post a final part of this series in the next few days to show and explore the uppermost part of the map which extends up the Chattahoochee River from Cedar Creek to Eufaula.  Watch for it!