Flag Officer David G. Farragut, the commander of the Union expedition against New Orleans, Louisiana, kept his smaller ships busy during the following weeks with training and preparations for the coming attack, while he labored to get his deep draft steamers over the bar and into the river.

With the 3d Division of the Flotilla, Racer was towed upstream on the afternoon of 17 April by USS Clifton and anchored near the left bank of the river under shelter of dense foliage.

After New Orleans and the southern forts fell, Porter and his flotilla retired down the Mississippi and proceeded via Ship Island to Pensacola, Florida.

The schooners shelled Confederate batteries as Farragut raced past the fortress to meet Flag Officer Davis' Western Flotilla and again, a fortnight later, when he dashed back down.

Racer reached Norfolk, Virginia, late in the month and following repairs at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, joined the Potomac Flotilla in September.