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

Upon his return to the United States he taught English literature at Poydras College in Pointe Coupee Parish, Louisiana.

[5][6] After the Civil War, Randall became a newspaper editor and a correspondent in Washington, D.C., for The Augusta Chronicle.

[8] The Randall Memorial Committee of Chapter "A" United Daughters of the Confederacy Augusta, Georgia, dedicated a statue to him there in 1936.

[9] James Ryder Randall Elementary School in Clinton, Maryland, bears his name.