Benjamin F. Sawyer, Mayor of the city of Oxanna, a suburb of Anniston, is a native of Talladega County, son of Ansel and Sarah (Norris) Sawyer, and was born May 18, 1833, at Jumper's Springs, now the town of Mardisville.
In June, 1861, he enlisted as a private in Company K, Tenth Alabama, and in July following was commissioned to raise a company. Benjamin armed and equipped the company at his own expense.
At the head of this company, then an independent command, he participated in the battles of Belmont and Columbus.
In the fall of 1861, he joined a Mississippi regiment, and at the battle of Shiloh was wounded. This retired him from active service for a short time, but her rejoined the army in September 1862, and was at the battle of Mumfordville, KY from which place, on account of his wound, he was assigned to post duty at Chattanooga. He rejoined his command at Shelbyville, where his company was transferred to the Twenty-fourth Alabama in the spring of '63. Captain Sawyer was promoted to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and as such he participated in the battle of Chickamauga, the Atlanta campaign, and in Hood's Tennessee campaign. After the battle of Franklin, he was promoted to colonel, and for some time before the close to the final surrender he commanded a brigade.
For a few years succeeding the war he was variously employed in farming and mercantile business, and in 1869 he established the "Mountain Home" at Talladaga. He edited this paper for about a year, and in 1870 took charge of the Rome (Georgia) "Daily". From the "Daily", within a short time, he transferred to the Rome "Courier", which paper he edited about five years. He then established the Rome "Tribune", and conducted it about two years. In 1874 he edited the Atlanta "Evening Commonwealth", and in 1879, he was at Newark, N.J., in the interest of an invention of his for the manufacture of paper bags.
Colonel Sawyer came to Anniston in 1883, and soon afterward established the Oxanna "Tribune".
In 1887, associated with S. and W.S. Larned, he established the South Anniston Hardware Company.
["Northern Alabama: historical and biographical" 1888]

Curry Rifles (Co. K) Ala. Vols from Talladega Co. - Ben F. Sawyer, Captain.
Capt. Sawyer makes the statement that he organized this company under orders from the Secretary of War at Richmond dated June 14, 1861, and armed and equipped it at his own expense. His guns rifles etc were made by Lamb & Co at a cost of $1500 at Jamestown N. C. The cartridges boxes were made by Smith & Motes and cost $250. Knapsacks and haversacks were made by Smith & Motes and cost $250. Canteens were made by Robert Cowan of Talladega and cost $50.00. Sabre-bayonets were made at Memphis, Tenn., and cost $500. The tents were made by the ladies of Plantersville in Talladega County and paid for by them.

Atlanta, GA, July 19 - Colonel B. F. Sawyer, journalist, inventor and soldier, died here to-night at the age of 68 years. Colonel Sawyer served under Lopez as a filibuster in the Cuban insurrection of fifty years ago and was colonel of the Twenty-fourth Alabama in the Civil War. [San Francisco Call July 20, 1901 ]