Captain George Hamilton Perkins (1835 - 1899)
Born at Hopkinton (NH); died at Boston (MA).
Career military man, U. S. Navy.
Portrait by Daniel Strain, 1894. Portrait presented to the State by Perkins, 1895.

George Hamilton Perkins was appointed to the U.S. Naval Academy and became an acting midshipman in 1851. He rose through the ranks and became Captain in 1882, in good part due to his Civil War military record. Perkins was Executive officer of the Cayuga at the passage of Fort Jackson and Fort St. Philip, and he was involved in the 1862 capture of New Orleans (LA). Perkins commanded the Chicksaw in the August 1864 battle of Mobile Bay (AL), and he was instrumental in the disabling of the Confederate ship Tennessee.

This portrait is probably done from photographs taken when Perkins made Captain (1882). The portrait should be contrasted with the Daniel Chester French statue of Commodore Perkins, made shortly after Perkins was promoted to Commodore, in 1896.

The statue, in a niche on the west side of the Capitol, was dedicated before an immense crowd and representatives of the U.S. Navy and the president on April 25, 1902.

Location: First Floor, State House