 Despite secession, many southerners in North Georgia remained loyal to the Union.Approximately 5,000 Georgians served in the U.S. Army in units such as the 1st Georgia Infantry Battalion, the 1st Alabama Cavalry Regiment, and a number of East Tennessean regiments.Georgia's Rabun County in particular, which did not declare secession from the Union, was highly Unionist, described by some as being "almost a unit against secession."