Although Vice President Dick Cheney, who died Monday at 84, grew up roughly 1,500 miles away in Wyoming, his family history traces back to the Chickamauga Battlefield.

His great-grandfather, Samuel Cheney, fought in the 21st Ohio Infantry in the Civil War, including in the Battle of Chickamauga in 1863.

"It is a true privilege for each one of us to stand on such honored, hallowed ground," Cheney said during a 2008 visit, honoring the battle's 145th anniversary. "May our nation never forget the valor of the Blue and the Gray at the Battle of Chickamauga."

This speech didn't mark Cheney's first visit. He first visited years earlier alongside battlefield historian Jim Ogden, and 21st Ohio Infantry historian Brad Quinlin.

To Quinlin, Cheney became much more than the nation's most powerfu

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