USModel Percussion Pistol 1842: Henry Aston Middleton, Conn.

“U.S Model Percussion Pistol 1842” Henry Aston Middleton, Conn.

The pistol was manufactured by Henry Aston and Ira Johnson of Middleton, Connecticut. The U.S model 1842 percussion pistol was a single shot percussion pistol used in the Civil war and also in the war against Mexico in 1847 to 1848. Henry Aston was an immigrant from the United States from England in 1819. Henry Aston founded his own company in 1843. The gun also saw considerable use on the Oregon Trail. Henry Aston manufactured around 30,000 pistols between 1846 and 1852. The Model 1842 was designed at Springfield Armory. The majority of pistols that were around this time were either from Henry Aston and Ira Johnson. Pattern pistols were made at the Palmetto Armory in South Carolina before the civil war. The …show more content…
The marking style on Henry Aston’s 1842 percussion pistol changed with the reorganization of the company in 1851. The reorganized company of 1851 consisted of Ira Johnson, Peter Aston, Peter Ashton and Sylvester C. Bailey. Henry Aston changed the legal name of his company to “H. Aston & Company” that is why the change of the lock plate marking happened. The factory was in Middleton, Connecticut. Ira Johnson was a partner in the firm with Henry Aston’s company until he resigned to make his own single shot pistols and his own company. In March, 1851 Ira Johnson received a contract from the U.S Ordnance Department to produce 10,000 M1842 percussion pistols. About 34,000 pistols were manufactured by 1850 and after Ira Johnson completed his contract; he continued to make the pistols under his own name. Ira Johnson completed an extra order for an additional 10,000 U.S Model 1842 percussion pistols between 1853 and 1855. “Leslie Poles Hartley and later Jeff Cooper observed, “The past is a foreign country. They do things differently there.” At best, we view the past “ … through a glass, darkly,” but nothing serves to clarify the