James Ryder Randall

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James Ryder Randall (January 1, 1839 at Baltimore, Maryland, United States – January 15, 1908 in Augusta, Georgia) was a journalist and poet.

He is most remembered for writing the poem Maryland, My Maryland, which is also the reason for his being called the "Poet Laureate of the Lost Cause". It became a war hymn of the Confederacy after the poem's words were set to music during the Civil War by Jennie Cary, a member of a prominent Maryland and Virginia family. It later became the state song of Maryland.

After abandoning his studies at Georgetown University, he traveled to South America and the West Indies.