James Ryder Randall

James Ryder Randall (1839–1908) was an American poet and journalist, born at Baltimore, Maryland. He was teaching at Poydras College in Louisiana in April 1861 when news of the Baltimore riot moved him to write “Maryland, My Maryland”.

Set to the tune of “O Tannenbaum”, the poem became a rallying song of the Confederacy. Randall later worked as a newspaper editor in Georgia.