We don't (yet) know much about the way George Alfred Keefe, his brothers and their friends fought their battles, but we do know it involved firing miniature black powder cannons. I have seen it suggested that in some way this places them at the "playing toy soldiers" rather than the "wargaming" end of the spectrum. personally I don't think this argument holds water - they simply outgunned H G Wells's matchstick firing cannon, and RL Stevenson's "sleeve-links" and printers' ems.
We als know from his letters that in January 1878 George Alfred Keefe bought a kriegspiel set from a Colonel returning home; it was missing the rules and he sent home for a copy of Baring's English edition of the rules - this seems enough to put him in the serious wargaming fraternity.
This article from Wargamers Newsletter #101 of August 1970 shows this practice might have lasted longer than might have been expected.
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