George H. Perkins

Commodore George Hamilton Perkins (20 October 1836 – 28 October 1899) was an officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War.

Born in Contoocookville, New Hampshire in the northern part of Hopkinton to the Honorable Hamilton Eliot Perkins, George was appointed as Acting Midshipman in October 1851 and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy with the class of 1856. During the rest of that decade Midshipman Perkins served on at sea on the sloop of war Cyane, the storeship Release and the steamer Sumpter. He attained the ranks of Master in 1859 and Lieutenant in February 1861, on the eve of the Civil War. Perkins spent the conflict's first several months in the Sumpter, operating on anti-slavery patrols. In late 1861 he became Commanding Officer of the new gunboat Cayuga, in which he performed distinguished service during the 1862 campaigns to capture New Orleans and the lower Mississippi River.

He was next Executive Officer of the steam sloop Pensacola, receiving promotion to Lieutenant Commander at the end of 1862. His service on the Mississippi and in the Gulf of Mexico continued in 1863-1865, including command of gunboats New London and Sciota, and the monitor Chickasaw. While in the latter ship, his aggressive and effective conduct during the August 1864 Battle of Mobile Bay was a major factor in the capture of the Confederate ironclad Tennessee.