Perrin fought in the Mexican War as an infantry lieutenant in the Regular Army. Returning to South Carolina, he entered law school, passed the bar in Columbia in 1854 and practiced there until the outbreak of the Civil War.
Commissioned a captain in the 14th South Carolina Regiment, he arrived at Port Royal, South Carolina, on January 1, 1862. By spring, Perrin's regiment had been called to the Virginia Peninsula in defense of Richmond.
Throughout the year, he fought commendably, fighting in the Seven Days Campaign and at Cedar Mountain, Second Bull Run, Harper's Ferry, Antietam and Fredericksburg. After General Samuel McGowan was seriously wounded at Chancellorsville in spring, 1863, Perrin took over his brigade, which he led in General William Pender's division at the battle of Gettysburg. At Falling Waters, his men served as the rear guard. For his service in 1863, he was promoted to brigadier general on September 10.
The following spring, Perrin headed his brigade in a gallant stand in the Wilderness Campaign. His command consisted of the former brigade of General Cadmus Wilcox in General A. P. Hill's III Corps.
Before the battle of Spotsylvania which began on May 8, 1864, Perrin made a prophetic remark: "I shall come out of this fight a live major general or a dead brigadier." He was killed in action near the "Mule Shoe" on May 12.
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