Following the Battle of Guilford Courthouse, General Lord Charles Cornwallis led his British army of about 1,400 men on a strategic march towards Wilmington, North Carolina. Approximately two weeks after the battle, the troops established a campsite at Cain's Neck, situated about three miles south of Tarheel in a region enclosed by Goodman Swamp and Black Swamp. This land was owned by brothers Samuel and Joseph Cain, near today's Bryan's Mill Pond. This movement was part of Cornwallis's effort to regroup and resupply after the costly encounter at Guilford Courthouse, where the British won a pyrrhic victory against American forces led by Nathanael Greene. Despite the tactical win, the significant losses weakened the British Southern campaign, contributing to Cornwallis's eventual surrender at Yorktown six months later—a pivotal moment that marked the beginning of the end of British rule in the American colonies.