The military career of Benedict Arnold in 1781 consisted of service in the British Army. Arnold had changed sides in September 1780, after his plot to surrender the key Continental Army outpost at West Point was exposed. After spending the rest of 1780 recruiting Loyalists for a new regiment called the American Legion, Arnold was sent with 1,600 men in late December by General Sir Henry Clinton to Virginia, with instructions to raid Richmond and then establish a strong fortification at Portsmouth.