[1] While the precinct was being attacked, Banfield had been ordered to guard the State Armory, then considered a likely target by the rioters, and held the building until he and his 20-man police force were relieved by the Broadway Squad under Sergeant Cornelious Burdick at around 2:00 am.
He and Sergeant William Jamieson both competed to win the position on a permanent basis, a rivalry which Jamieson eventually won, and Banfield was sent back to the Eighteenth Precinct after Captain Charles N. Brackett took command of the Twenty-First Precinct.
[1] He spent time in the First, Seventh and Thirteenth Precincts until joining the "Steamboat Squad" under Sergeant George W. Gastlin.
The squad was a special unit formed by Police Commissioner Joel B. Erhardt for the purpose of combating river pirates and criminal gangs active on the New York waterfront.
Banfield continued to serve with the squad until his death from consumption at his son's Java Street home on March 4, 1883.