Copyright © 1998 by John M. Dillard.
A flint and steel musket loading rifle, mechanically modified to make it percussional,
with its original barrel and stock, and which John Dillard brought from Virginia in 1782
is now on display under glass in The Dillard House Lobby. This rifle, now owned by
Barnard Malcolm Dillard, was passed to him through his great-grandfather, William F.
Dillard, whose home still stands in the uptown of Dillard. William F. Dillard was a
son of James and grandson of John Dillard (not to be confused with William F. Dillard,
a son of John).
Family tradition holds that John Dillard used this rifle in the Revolutionary War
in Virginia. After the death of William F. Dillard at
Begin page 4 of the: DILLARD ANNUAL, Vol. 1, Jan., 1992,
Compiled and edited by John M. Dillard.
Lynchburg in the Civil War, and his wife a short time later, his then small
children were raised by Dillard, Georgia members of the Wesley Chapel
Methodist Church. The rifle, along with other personal belongings, remained in
the William F. Dillard unoccupied residence for many years, until his children at
or near adulthood, re-entered the house, found the rifle, and have kept it in the
family to this date.
Copyright © 1998 by John M. Dillard.
End of: "The John Dillard Rifle,"
by John M. Dillard, from the
DILLARD ANNUAL, Vol. 1; Jan., 1992, pages 3-4.