Kirby's Augusta - James Ryder Randall: Poet, Songwriter, Dedicated Christian, Augustan

You notice immediately that the statue of James Ryder Randall in front of the former Sacred Heart Church is different.
His head is bowed.
Most statues feature defiant men - strong-standing stone appearing purposeful for posterity.
Not Randall.
It looks like he's praying
Such is appropriate, we are told, because Randall - a onetime Augusta Chronicle editor - spent the final years of his life editing Catholic publications and going to church.
Daily.

James Ryder Randall wrote the lyrics to what became the state song of his native Maryland. Today those phrases - with their reference to "Northern scum," and the suggestion that overthrow of the federal government would be a good thing -- are not politically correct, and many in Maryland would just as soon drop the song.
That would no doubt hurt him because Randall loved his home state . He even named his daughter Maryland and she lived in North Augusta for many years, according to a 1970 newspaper article.
That's because after the Civil War, Randall ended up in Augusta and worked for The Chronicle for two decades, in what's been called a Golden Age at the newspaper when Patrick Walsh, Pleasant Stovall and Randall all worked together.
From that group, IT SHOULD BE NOTED, it was Randall who was chosen to write a history of this newspaper that appeared in its 1885 centennial edition.
Today we consider the stanzas of Maryland, My Maryland a bit out of touch. Randall is described by his modern critics dismissively as simply a "Georgia reporter," or "a school teacher" overcome with a martial bloodlust.
But in his day Randall was a celebrated figure praised both by those who agreed with his Southern sympathies, as well as those who -- like New England's Oliver Wendell Holmes-- recognized something emotionally genuine and unique in at least one of his poetic efforts.
Randall's death was significant enough that The New York Times reported it, and the Maryland Legislature immediately announced plans to create a memorial to honor him alongside another Baltimore favorite Edgar Allen Poe.
We shouldn't forget that.

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