William Hamilton Sawyer, son of Joel Alexander Sawyer and Esther Eliza Thompson, was born on 8 August 1824 in Macon County, North Carolina. He married Elizabeth Welch on 9 March 1845, probably in Macon County; however, the marriage bond has not survived. The marriage date comes apparently from a Family Bible.

In the 1850 census, he lived in Deep Creek Township, Macon County, Carolina. In the 1860 census, he lived in Stecoah Township, Cherokee County, North Carolina. Both census state that he was born in Macon County, North Carolina. His father, Joel Alexander Sawyer, was enumerated in the 1830 and 1840 census in Macon County, North Carolina.

According to his daughter Esther Eliza (Sawyer) Myers's application for Cherokee benefits, William Hamilton Sawyer died on 14 August 1866 (no place was given). His last daughter was born on 14 January 1867, so he cannot be the William Sawyer who died four years earlier on 20 October 1863 (as previously noted here).

There is no evidence that William Hamilton Sawyer served during the Civil War on either the Confederate or Union side. He cannot be the William H. Sawyer who enlisted on 9 September 1861 in Company F, North Carolina 33rd Infantry Regiment; when this William H. Sawyer enlisted, he was aged 18 (thus born about 1843). As noted above, he cannot be the William Sawyer who died on 20 October 1863 in Craven County, North Carolina, as William Hamilton Sawyer had a daughter born four years later; also, this person was a Union soldier.

See: https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-L9WX-7SP1?i=869&cat=209173

For the Eastern Cherokee Application shown to the left:

United States. Court of Claims, Eastern Cherokee Applications, 1906-1909, nos. 15801-15950 (Washington, D.C.: Filmed by the National Archives, 1981), no. 15883, Elizabeth (Sawyer) Myers, 2 January 1907, National Archive, series M1104, roll 148, FamilySearch, DGS 00378449 (www.familysearch.org), images 870-79/1612.