He was born on October 20, 1836 in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, United States. His father, Hamilton Eliot Perkins, descended from an old Warwickshire family, the Rev. William Perkins coming to Boston in 1632. His mother, Clara Bartlett (George) Perkins, was also of English stock.
He had his schooling at Hopkinton and Gilmanton academies, and when he was nearly fifteen entered the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis. He had already shown a greater liking for outdoor life and adventure than for books, and at the Academy he but narrowly escaped "bilging" because of scholastic difficulties. He lengthened the four-year course to five, showing superiority only in target practice with the big guns on the summer cruises.
After graduation his first duty was in the sloop Cyane, dispatched to Nicaragua and Panama, and in the bark Release, sent to Paraguay. As acting master of the Sumter he was ordered to the dreaded West African coast in 1859 to suppress the slave trade - a duty which lasted for two years and which provided him many an adventure. On February 2, 1861, he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
When he returned to the United States the Civil War had already begun, and he was ordered as first lieutenant to the gunboat Cayuga assigned to the West Gulf Blockading Squadron under Farragut. As the attack on New Orleans developed, the Cayuga was made the flagship of Capt. Theodorus Bailey, the second in command, and on the morning of April 24, 1862, it led the entire fleet in the passage of the forts. When the fleet reached New Orleans, Captain Bailey asked Lieutenant Perkins to go ashore with him under a flag of truce. Surrounded by a hostile and threatening mob, the two officers made their way to the mayor's office to demand the surrender of the city.
Perkins took part in the subsequent operations between New Orleans and Vicksburg, and then as commanding officer of the Sciota served seven months of blockade duty on the Texas coast. He was then granted a leave of absence, but when he learned that Farragut was preparing to attack the forts defending Mobile, he volunteered his services again and was promptly assigned to the command of the new river monitor Chickasaw. In passing the forts and in his engagement with the Confederate ironclad ram Tennessee, he handled the monitor with consummate skill, receiving highest praise from his superiors.
He was employed in further operations against the forts and became so valuable that he was continued in command until after the close of the war. His subsequent service afloat was almost entirely in the Pacific. He had command of the Ashuelot on the Asiatic Station, 1877-79, and of the Hartford off South America, 1884-85. He was promoted to the rank of commander in 1871, and to the rank of captain in 1882, being retired in 1891 only because of ill health. Five years later he was promoted commodore on the retired list.
The last years of his life were spent largely in Webster, New Hampshire, where he purchased several farms, bred fine cattle and race horses, and indulged the whims of a gentleman farmer. He spent the winters at his home in Boston, where he died a few days after his sixty-third birthday.
George Hamilton Perkins performed distinguished service during the 1862 campaigns to capture New Orleans and the lower Mississippi River. He was promoted to the rank of commodore in recognition of his gallantry and skill during the Battle of Mobile Bay. Monument to Perkins was erected at the New Hampshire State House in Concord in 1902. The U. S. Navy has named three destroyers in honor of George H. Perkins.
Quotes from others about the person
Farragut said of him, only a month before his own death, "Perkins was young and handsome, and no braver man ever trod a ship's deck; his work in the Chickasaw did more to capture the Tennessee than all the guns of the fleet put together".
He was married to Anna Minot Weld, daughter of William Fletcher Weld of Boston, on July 25, 1870. They had one child, Isabel, who later became Mrs. Larz Anderson.
