The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Randall, James Ryder

RANDALL, James Ryder, American journalist and poet: b. Baltimore, Md., 1 Jan. 1839; d. Augusta, Ga., 14 Jan. 1908. He was educated at Georgetown College, D.C., taught for a while in a Louisiana college, and then turned to journalism. In 1861 he wrote ‘Maryland, My Maryland,’ a song which when set to music became, next to ‘Dixie,’ the most popular of the Confederate war-songs and is considered by many to the best American martial lyric. None of his other songs achieved the fame of this, but several of them are of notable excellence. Among them are ‘Stonewall Jackson,’ and ‘There’s Life in the Old Land Yet.’ After 1866 he was for many years the editor of the Constitutionalist of Augusta, Ga., and later of the Morning Star of New Orleans.