146
The Entertainers
I
NNES
R
ANDOLPH
,
1837
–
1887
Innes Randolph was the husband of the great-granddaughter
of Adam King and great-granddaughter of Thomas Gerard
Slye.
Randolph is described as a man of rare talents, with
early predilections for both music and art, but after serving in
the Confederate Army he settled in Baltimore for the practice
of law and incidentally began to contribute poems and
sketches to the newspapers. At length he relinquished the
legal profession and became an editorial writer on the
Baltimore American, a position he held for the remainder of
his days. Among his best know poems are Twilight at
Hollywood, The Good Old Rebel, and an Ode to John
Marshall. After his death, a volume of his verse was edited by
his son, Professor Harold Randolph.
Copyright records indicate The Good ‘ol Rebel Soldier
was not published until 1914 (Collier’s Magazine). That
doesn’t mean it was un-circulated. It is found in the Civil War
Annals of Louisiana in 1865. The power or anguish of the
poem touched the 20
th
century Baby Boomers and has been
recorded by The Grateful Dead, Keith Carradine, and
recorded again on A & M Records in 1996.