On 11 January 1862, USS Essex engaged Confederate States Navy gunboats near Lucas Bend, Missouri.

On 15 July 1862, USS Essex was engaged with CSS Arkansas as that ship successfully ran past the Union fleets in front of the city.

After withdrawing, Essex joined Admiral David Farragut's squadron and was the only Federal ironclad on the lower Mississippi River.

On 6 August, the Essex once again engaged CSS Arkansas as that vessel attempted to relieve the beleaguered Confederates attacking Baton Rouge.

According to David Redrick, the Rear Admiral's cook, some of the boat's crew "slipped ashore at night" and "got on a spree".

During the arrest, he was stabbed in the right chest by a fellow seaman, and was honorably discharged for disability due to the chronicity of the wound, from which he later died in 1878.