Dashiell was named for Robert Brooke Dashiell, a naval constructor killed in 1899 when a gun burst during a test at Indian Head. Federal Shipbuilding at Kearny launched her on 6 February 1943. She commissioned on 20 March under Commander J. B. McLean.
She rode the fast carriers for the Marcus, Tarawa, and Wake raids in the late summer of 1943, then went into the Gilberts. Off Tarawa in November she grounded and took damage. That grounding was the same lagoon fight as Ringgold (DD-500). Through 1944 she covered Emirau, Hollandia, the Marianas, Morotai, and the reinforcement convoys into Leyte. On the run to Mindoro in December a kamikaze hit the flagship. The flag came across to Dashiell for the landings on the 15th.
At Lingayen Gulf in January 1945 she worked over small craft and shore positions and shot down kamikazes. Off Okinawa she drew radar-picket duty. On 14 April about twenty planes came at her station. She splashed four and dodged the rest, but a bomb near-miss damaged her and she repaired at Ulithi. A June typhoon damaged her again. She was in Tokyo Bay at the surrender, then went to Charleston and into reserve on 30 March 1946.
Recommissioned on 3 May 1951, she worked from Newport, joined a NATO exercise in northern Europe in 1952, and in 1953 made a round-the-world cruise that included Korea and the Taiwan Strait. She decommissioned in 1960, was struck in 1974, and was sold for scrap on 21 September 1975.