It was in 1851 that he left in a sailing vessel, the Grecian, for the six months' voyage "'round the Horn."
His first vote was cast in the canyons of the North Yuba in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. During his successful career in California he was a member of the celebrated Vigilance Committee and was one of those who helped to apprehend the famous outlaw "Yankee Sullivan," and was present at the trial and hanging of Juaquin Murat and "Three-Fingered Jack."
Returning home at the death of his father and starting in business in Ellenville, N. Y., yet at the outbreak of the war Mr. Neafie put aside personal interests and went to the front. He was offered the captaincy of the Walden Company of the 124th Regiment, but declined it, as he had already raised nearly two companies of what became the 156th Infantry.
His military record is to be found in brief in the Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army, Vol. 1, page 741, as follows:
"Neafie, Alfred, N. Y., N. Y. Capt. 156th N. Y. Inf., 13th Sept., 1862; Lt.-Col., 9th Jan., 1864; Lt.-Col. Vols., 13th March, 1865, for gal. and meritorious services at Battle of Winchester and Fisher Hill, Va., and Brig.-Gen. Vols., 13th March, 1865, for conspicuous gallantry at Winchester, Va., 19th Sept., 1864. Mustered out 23d Oct., 1865."
During the war Gen. Neafie was provost marshal of Alexandria, La., and Baton Rouge.
While at Savannah he held the offices of supervisor of trade, collector of military taxes, relief commissioner and assisted in the repatriation of the South, as by virtue of seniority of rank he was chief of staff of the department.
A few of the brilliant and picturesque events of his military career were:
After the capture at Washington, Ga., of the archives of the Confederacy, which included records of Generals Beauregard, Polk, Joseph E. Johnston and Albert Sidney Johnston, $300,000,000 of cotton bonds, $760,000 in gold and silver and thirty wagon loads of valuable jewelry and personal articles, General Neafie, with two federal officers and two treasury agents, inventoried and sent to their proper owners, scattered all through the Southern States, all private property, while all public property was turned over to the United States Government. This was done in about two months.
As General Grover's chief of staff, General Neafie received Jefferson Davis when he was captured and delivered him to Lieutenant-Commander (now admiral, retired) Luce, in command of the double-ender Pontiac, in Savannah River.