On 4 July 1863, while commanding the gunboat Tyler, he participated in, and won praise for, effective action in repulsing a superior Confederate force during the battle of Helena, Arkansas.

Having screened the transports to the objective, she shifted her protective duties to the battleships as they bombarded the shore, then provided gunfire support to the troops landed on 15 June.

In August, she shifted to Guam to support mopping up operations and on the 17th got underway for Eniwetok to rejoin the fast carrier force, now designated TF 38.

Arriving on the 20th, she sortied with TG 38.3 on the 29th and for the next 28 days screened the carriers, and after 11 September, the battleships, as Japanese targets in the Palaus and the Philippines were pounded.

By 12 March, the destroyer was back at Ulithi to prepare for the invasion of the last stepping stone to the enemy's home islands: Okinawa.

Attached to Task Force 54 (TF 54), Prichett arrived off the objective 25 March to cover minesweeping and underwater demolition team operations.

On 1 April, she participated in the demonstration "feint" on southern Okinawa, then swung around to screen the transports off the Hagushi assault area.

The crippled destroyer, maintaining a speed in excess of 28 knots to minimize flooding and bringing the fire under control, remained in the area and continued to ward off enemy planes until relieved shortly before noon.

Arriving after the cessation of hostilities, she underwent deactivation overhaul at Puget Sound and on 14 March 1946 was decommissioned and berthed with the San Diego Group, Pacific Reserve Fleet.

Emerging in November with the latest in anti-aircraft weaponry, fire control radar, sonar and communications gear, she became the flagship of Destroyer Division 282 (DesDiv 282).

Between then and 23 June she performed plane guard and screening duties for the carriers of TF 77, screened battleships and cruisers during bombardment missions, and provided gunfire support, plane control, interdiction and harassment fire, and hospital ship services for United Nations Forces fighting in coastal areas, primarily near Wonsan, North Korea.

Assigned to DesDiv 192, she reported to CinCPac 17 January 1955 and by May she was en route to Japan for her first West Pacific deployment since the Korean War.

Homeported at Long Beach for the next nine years, she alternated 7th Fleet tours, ASW-HUK and carrier exercises and Taiwan Strait patrols, with training operations, including sonar and gunnery school ship assignments, off the west coast.

Prichett made the final westpac cruise 5 June 1969 through 18 November 1969 serving on the gunline in Vietnam for "call to fire" support for 17 days, subsequently returning to the Tonkin Gulf for plane guard duty with the USS Hancock until returning to San Diego to be decommissioned and was struck from the Navy List 10 January 1970.