Background
Perrin was born in the Edgefield District of South Carolina.
Perrin was born in the Edgefield District of South Carolina.
Upon his return home, he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1854.
He was killed by a musket round to the femoral artery at the Battle of Spotsylvania on May 12, 1864 at 7am. He fought in the Mexican-American War as a lieutenant in the infantry. When the began, Perrin entered the Confederate service as a captain in the 14th South Carolina Infantry that was attached to Brigade
General
Maxcy Gregg"s brigade of the famous "Light Division" of Major General A.P. Hill. Perrin saw service with Gregg"s Brigade through all of its major battles, including the Seven Days, Second Bulletin Run (Second Manassas), Antietam, and Fredericksburg. When Gregg"s successor, Samuel McGowan, was wounded at Chancellorsville, Perrin took command of the brigade and led it at the subsequent Battle of Gettysburg in the division of Major
General
William Dorsey Pender in Hill"s new Third Corps. At Gettysburg, on July 1, 1863, Perrin"s brigade was involved in the Confederate attack that captured Seminary Ridge. On September 10, 1863, Perrin was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.
Upon the return of McGowan, Perrin was transferred to command the Alabama brigade previously led by Brigade
General Cadmus Wilcox in the division of Major General Richard H. Anderson.
(Wilcox had been appointed to command the division of Pender, who had died from a wound received at Gettysburg)
Perrin was conspicuously brave at the Battle of the Wilderness in May 1864. In the next battle, Spotsylvania Court House, he declared "I shall come out of this fight a live major general or a dead brigadier." When the "Mule Shoe" (or "Bloody Angle") was overrun and most of Major
General Edward "Allegheny" Johnson"s division was captured on May 12, 1864, units from the Third Corps—including Perrin"s brigade—were called in to help.
Leading his troops in a spirited counterattack through a very heavy fire, with his sword in hand, Perrin fell from his horse pierced by seven bullets. He died instantly. Perrin is buried in the Confederate Cemetery in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Quotations: "I shall come out of this fight a live major general or a dead brigadier.".