By Victoria Bynum
Revised January 20, 2025
Deep Roots, Broken Branches, A History and Memoir, scheduled for release by the University Press of Mississippi on 17 February 2025, marks a distinct departure from my previous works. Rather than use a traditional emphasis on events or eras of history, I begin Deep Roots, Broken Branches by introducing myself and the people closest to me in childhood, most particularly, my grandmother (pictured below), whose unpublished memoir and letters are central to the book. Throughout, I recreate several of history’s most important events from the perspectives of my Welsh and German American ancestors, my parents, and myself.
Introducing my new book on Renegade South will change the blog’s focus, though not entirely. Mississippi, with the addition of Georgia and Florida, remains an important topic, though the Great Northwest and Far West will be equally important. The timeline of Southern stories shifts as well, with the Civil Rights Era South largely replacing the Civil War South. At the same time, the nineteenth century experiences of Welsh and German immigrants add a new dimension to Renegade South as a forum for “a people’s history”.
Despite these differences, the first chapter of Deep Roots, Broken Branches centers on Renegade South’s familiar topic of the Civil War. Entitled “The Welsh Origins of a Civil War Love Story,” my great-grandparents’ story begins in the troubled world of industrializing Wales, moves to the prosperous but politically divided United States, and ends on the battlefields of the American war over slavery. I was intrigued to learn that after sheltering several Black refugees in “neutral” (i.e. anti-secessionist) Kentucky, the 22nd Wisconsin Infantry in which my Welsh great-grandfather served became known as the “Abolitionist Regiment”.
Two soldiers from the 22nd Wisconsin regiment stand guard over a young woman who sought and received the regiment’s aid in escaping her enslavers. Photo from Jesse I Berch, quartermaster sergeant, 22nd Wisconsin Regiment of Racine, WI. Courtesy of GetArchive LLC
Equally intriguing, the 22nd Wisconsin infantry later fought at Kennesaw Mountain, Georgia, against Gen. Joseph Johnston’s Army of Tennessee, which included the 7th Battalion Mississippi Infantry of “Free State of Jones” fame. Several deserters of the 7th battalion, including Merida Coats, Simeon Collins, Matt Collins, Patrick Valentine, and William M. Welch, were captured from the Leaf River swamps of Mississippi and forced back into the unit, thus making me kin to men (Unionists all!) on both sides of the Kennesaw battle.
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