After attending a Presbyterian school, the Caldwell institute and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Scales entered teaching for a time.

He was elected four times to the North Carolina state legislature and served as chairman of the Finance Committee.

In 1854, he ran a close but unsuccessful race as the Democratic candidate for United States Congress in a Whig district.

All of Alfred Scales's Civil War service was with Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

Seizing the colors of his regiment at a critical moment at Cold Harbor and advancing to the front, he called on the 13th to stand to them, thus restoring confidence and keeping his men in position."

Scales again served with distinction during the Battle of Chancellorsville in May 1863, where he was wounded in the thigh, continuing on the field until loss of blood forced him to leave.

After returning to service upon the apparent recovery from his wound, Scales participated in the campaigns of the Army of Northern Virginia during 1864 including the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and the Siege of Petersburg.

Due to his previous wounds being unhealed, Scales took a leave of absence late in the war, and was at home in North Carolina when the army surrendered at Appomattox Court House.

Upon the expiration of his term as governor in 1888 he retired permanently from political life, repeatedly refusing to run again for Congress.

His condition was diagnosed as Bright's disease, causing his brain to become so affected that during the last months of his life, he was only conscious for short intervals.

At the time of his death all the businesses in Greensboro closed and the entire city turned out to attend his funeral.

The Alfred Moore Scales Law Office at Madison was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1982.