This statue to James Ryder Randall stands on beautiful tree lined Greene Street in Augusta, Georgia.
The front inscription reads:
JAMES RYDER RANDALL
1839 - 1908
Better the fire upon thee roll,
Better the blade, the shot, the bowl,
Than crucifixion of the soul,
Maryland, my Maryland
Back inscription:
Erected by the
Randall Memorial Committee
of Chapter "A"
United Daughters of the Confederacy
Augusta Georgia
May 28, 1936
John Ryder Randall, a 22-year-old journalist and poet from Baltimore, Maryland, was educated at Georgetown University and had just accepted the position of Chair of English Literature at Poydras College , Pointe-Coupee, Louisiana, then a flourishing Creole institution. At the outbreak of the War Between the States, when Randall heard of the attack by Union troops in Baltimore on April 21, 1861 it disturbed him greatly. A friend and classmate of his had been killed in the conflict. Randall’s Southern sympathies were so aroused by the incident that he sat up late into the night, penning a poem by candlelight. The poem was first published in the New Orleans Sunday Delta just five days later.
The front inscription reads:
JAMES RYDER RANDALL
1839 - 1908
Better the fire upon thee roll,
Better the blade, the shot, the bowl,
Than crucifixion of the soul,
Maryland, my Maryland
Back inscription:
Erected by the
Randall Memorial Committee
of Chapter "A"
United Daughters of the Confederacy
Augusta Georgia
May 28, 1936
John Ryder Randall, a 22-year-old journalist and poet from Baltimore, Maryland, was educated at Georgetown University and had just accepted the position of Chair of English Literature at Poydras College , Pointe-Coupee, Louisiana, then a flourishing Creole institution. At the outbreak of the War Between the States, when Randall heard of the attack by Union troops in Baltimore on April 21, 1861 it disturbed him greatly. A friend and classmate of his had been killed in the conflict. Randall’s Southern sympathies were so aroused by the incident that he sat up late into the night, penning a poem by candlelight. The poem was first published in the New Orleans Sunday Delta just five days later.
Soon the poem made its way back to Baltimore. Miss Jennie Cary added “My Maryland” to each stanza and the song began to be sung to the familiar tune of "Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum," or “O Christmas Tree.” It became a war hymn of the Confederacy and was very popular throughout the time of War Between the States and beyond. Since 1939 it has been the official state song of Maryland.
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The words of Randall's poem illustrate that his first love and loyalty was to his native country - Maryland. Many, if not most, citizens of the United States at that time considered their first allegiance to their sovereign state, which was united to the other states only by a voluntary and limited union.
Randall came to be called the “Poet Laureate of the Lost Cause." After the war, he served as a journalist with several different newspapers, his last position being a correspondent and editor for the Augusta Chronicle, Georgia’s oldest newspaper. I feel a certain kinship with James Ryder Randall because for more than ten years I also wrote a regular editorial page column for the the Augusta Chronicle. Randall died in Augusta on January 15, 1908.
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You can see the entire poem and hear the music at this link: http://www.mdkidspage.org/StateSong.htm
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Photo and Article by J. Stephen Conn
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