Cheney's plane touched down at the Chattanooga Metropolitan Airport shortly after 3 p.m. From there the vice president, riding in a black sport utility vehicle accompanied by secret service agents and state and local law enforcement, traveled south down Interstate 75, then along Battlefield Parkway to the park. He arrived around 3:30 p.m.
Fort Oglethorpe Police Chief Steve Blevins said his department closed U.S. 27 at the park's entrance just before Cheney's motorcade arrived at the Visitor's Center, and re-opened the road shortly thereafter.
The vice president and a few family members spent time
retracing the ancestry of one of Cheney's relatives who fought in the Battle of Chickamauga. During a trip to Dalton last October to rally support for the state's Republican candidates, Cheney apparently dropped by the nation's first and largest military park, discovering a relative who fought with the Ohio Infantry in the bloody, two-day battle in the fall of 1863.
The vice president and his family spent about an hour inside the Visitor's Center before traveling to Snodgrass Hill, where the Snodgrass family cabin served as a field hospital for both Union and Confederate soldiers during the battle.
Kristen Chambless with the vice president's office said Monday afternoon that Cheney's schedule was "closed," and no future statements will be made to the public concerning the visit
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