How did this heroic Pennsylvania "rebel" manage to survive nearly a year of captivity by British-allied hostile tribes during the Revolutionary War, enduring both a brutal capture and numerous failed escapes. In 1780, Luke Swetland (1729-1823) would publish a short 27-page narrative of his brutal capture and life as a captive under the lengthy title "A Very Remarkable Narrative of Luke Swetland: Who Was Taken Captive Four Times in the Space of Fifteen Months, in the Time of the Late Contest Between Great Britain and America." Swetland lived at Wyoming on the Susquehannah river during the time of the Wyoming Massacre. On June 30, 1778, British (Tory) forces, under the command of Colonel John Butler, arrived in the Wyoming Valley to confront the American settlers. On July 1, the American militia at Fort Wintermute (Wintermoot) and Fort Jenkins (a Patriot stockade in present-day West Pittston) surrendered. On July 3, the British spotted the Aszmerican militia near Forty Fort. Butler wanted to lure the Americans away from their fortifications. He ordered for Fort Wintermute to be set ablaze. The Patriots, believing it signified a British retreat, advanced rapidly. British soldiers, with the assistance of about 700 Native Americans, ambushed the oncoming American militia in and around the present-day Exeter and Wyoming. In the end, nearly 300 Wyoming Valley settlers were killed in what would be known as the Wyoming Massacre. On July 4, the American colonel, Nathan Denison, agreed to surrender Forty Fort along with several other posts.
