Harry (Henry) Perkins was born in Albemarle County, Virginia, around 1811, and worked as a farmer before the war. He enlisted as a private in the Union army for a period of three years on December 12, 1863, in Memphis, Tennessee, at the age of 52. He mustered into Company E of the 64th USCT Infantry Regiment on the same day as his enlistment. Perkins’s service record describes him as 5 feet, 5 1/4 inches tall, with black hair, black eyes, and a black complexion.

Perkins married Frances Jones on August 23, 1863, in Memphis, Tennessee. The officiant was Asa S. Fiske, a congregational army chaplain attached to the 4th Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment who also worked for the Freedmen’s Bureau Department in the Memphis area. Harry and Frances Perkins had no children together. Perkins’s unit primarily performed post and garrison duty in Vicksburg and Natchez, Mississippi. The 64th USCT saw action at Ashwood Landing, Louisiana, in May 1864 and Davis Bend, Mississippi, in June 1864. In August 1865, Perkins fell ill at Davis Bend and recuperated at the hospital in nearby Vicksburg. On March 13, 1866, while still in the hospital, Perkins received a medical discharge from the army. He then moved to Memphis, Tennessee, and died a few months later on August 17, 1866, from inflammation of the lungs and consumption. His widow Frances filed for a pension after his death. Although she claimed his death resulted from disease contracted while in the service, the pension office ultimately denied her application.