She was sunk by Japanese cruisers, approximately 200 miles east of Christmas Island on or around 2 March 1942 with all hands, one of two major American surface warships lost in World War II with no survivors.

Pillsbury was laid down by William Cramp & Sons of Philadelphia on 23 October 1919, launched on 3 August 1920, sponsored by Miss Helen Langdon Richardson and commissioned on 15 December 1920.

During service in the Asiatic Fleet, Pillsbury was involved in the 1927 Nanking Incident as part of a U.S. Navy flotilla helping protect American interests around the Yangtze River.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Pillsbury, together with other United States, Dutch and Australian naval vessels, operated out of Balikpapan on reconnaissance and anti-submarine patrols.

Later she moved to Surabaya, Java and from there made night patrols with the cruisers Houston (CA-30) and Marblehead (CL-12) and destroyers of Division 58.

When a searchlight was trained on Pillsbury and several shots were fired at her, she turned to starboard and made smoke to escape.

Edsall was also attacked by nine Aichi D3A dive bombers from Sōryū and eight from Akagi, which hit her with several bombs, leaving her dead in the water by 18:50.