Dick Cheney Visits the Tennessee Valley

CHICKAMAUGA, Ga. (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney told Civil War re-enactors at Chickamauga that the history of the battlefield where his great grandfather fought as a union officer 145 years ago is inspiring.

The vice president spoke Friday to start a weekend of cannon blasts and shooting on the 145th anniversary of the South's last major victory of the war. Speaking to more than 5,000 people, some wearing woolen soldier uniforms and busloads of northwest Georgia students, Cheney said it is "amazing and inspiring to think about the history that was made in this corner of America."

Event director Reece Sexton says Cheney accepted an invitation to return to the site where his great-grandfather, Samuel Fletcher Cheney, was a union lieutenant.