Will-Grundy County IL Archives Biographies.....Hayes, General Philip C 
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Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 February 6, 2008, 11:35 pm

Author: Past and Present Will County IL; 1907

GENERAL PHILIP C. HAYES. A residence of a family through many generations in 
one land brings a feeling of attachment and loyalty thereto which is 
indestructible. It is indeed the rare exception when there is found a man who 
has not a deep feeling for his native country, and the greater the service and 
sacrifice which one performs through a spirit of patriotism the greater is 
this attachment. Through the example of an illustrious ancestry and by reason 
of his devotion and public spirit in days of peace and of war, as manifest in 
political and military circles, the love of General Hayes for his country has 
constantly developed, making his service of the utmost benefit to city, state 
or nation, as the exigencies and opportunities of the moment require. He is, 
moreover, a business man of ability and enterprise and his labors in the field 
of journalism have been of direct benefit to Joliet. He is now living retired 
in the enjoyment of a well merited rest, yet he will never cease to be a 
public man in that his fellow townsmen will again and again call upon him for 
service, which he capably renders. George Hayes, the progenitor of the family 
in America, was of Scotch birth and ancestry and came to the new world in 
1680, settling in Windsor, Connecticut. Of the same branch of the family to 
which the general belongs was President R. B. Hayes, the relationship of third 
cousins existing between them. Both are direct descendants of Ezekiel Hayes, 
the third son of Daniel Hayes, who was the eldest son of the founder of the 
family in America. Two of the most salient characteristics as manifest in the 
family are loyalty and patriotism and this has been manifest in the wars of 
the country, the great-grandfather of General Hayes having been one of the 
Revolutionary heroes, while Gaylord Hayes, father of our subject, and his 
brother, Ezekiel, were soldiers of the American army in the war of 1812. 
Gaylord Hayes, a native of New England, wedded Mary Goodrich Humphrey and for 
some time they were residents of Granby, Connecticut, where the birth of 
General Hayes occurred on the 3d of February, 1833. In the fall of the same 
year, however, the parents brought their family to the west, settling near 
Ottawa, La Salle county, Illinois, where the father engaged in farming. The 
early childhood of General Hayes was spent in that locality. At the early age 
of twelve years he was thrown upon his own resources by the death of his 
parents and his lack of financial resources rendered immediate employment a 
necessity. When fifteen years of age he was working as a farm hand at eight 
dollars per month and in the winter season he worked for his board and the 
privilege of attending the country schools of the neighborhood. Ambitious to 
secure a good education, he eagerly applied himself to the mastery of the 
branches of learning taught in such institutions and when nineteen years of 
age had qualified himself for the profession of teaching. For several years he 
was connected as instructor with the district schools and during that period 
devoted his leisure hours to private study, thus preparing to enter college. 
He afterward attended Farm Ridge Seminary, in La Salle county, and on the 1st 
of September, 1855, matriculated as a student in the preparatory school at 
Oberlin, Ohio. A year later he became a regular student in the college at that 
place and was graduated in September, 1860. He had determined to devote his 
life to the work of the ministry and when his literary education was completed 
he took up the study of theology, which he was diligently pursuing at the time 
of the opening of the Civil war. But the events which were so rapidly making 
history changed the course of his life. General Hayes was a student of the 
signs of the times, felt deep sympathy with the abolition movement, and, 
noting the unrest in the south and the threats of secession, he waited almost 
breathlessly the outcome of those conditions. At the first call of President 
Lincoln for seventy-five thousand troops following the attack on Fort Sumter 
General Hayes enlisted as a private and when the company was formed was 
elected its captain, but the state had already furnished more troops than its 
regular quota and his company was therefore not accepted. A contemporary 
biographer, in speaking of the military service of General Hayes, said: In 
1862 he made another attempt to enlist. He raised a company and was mustered 
into the United States service on the 16th of July at Columbus, Ohio. He was 
made captain of his company, which was assigned to the One Hundred and Third 
Ohio Infantry as Company F. The regiment was armed at Cincinnati, then crossed 
the river to Covington, where it was uniformed and furnished with other 
necessary supplies. Thus equipped, it marched to Fort Mitchell on the 6th of 
September. The people of Cincinnati and vicinity were at that time greatly 
excited over the threatened invasion of the enemy under the command of Kirby 
Smith. The One Hundred and Third took an active part in checking the advance 
of the foe, and in fact greatly assisted in forcing the rebel troops to beat a 
retreat. After pursuing the enemy for some distance, the command returned and 
went into camp at Snow Pond, where nearly half of the regiment were prostrated 
with sickness. Subsequently the One Hundred and Third was detached from the 
brigade and moved to Frankfort, where it went into camp on the bank of the 
Kentucky river. In the early part of April, 1863, it was ordered out after 
independent squads of freebooters and marauding bands of mounted men. About 
the middle of August the national forces under General Burnside moved from 
Danville, Kentucky, across the mountains, to take part in the Tennessee 
campaign, the One Hundred and Third Ohio being in the command, and going by 
way of Stanford, Crab Orchard, Cumberland, Burnside Point, Montgomery, Lenoir 
and Concord. At that time Knoxville was the stronghold of the enemy, but on 
learning of the approach of the Union army they abandoned their fortifications 
there, which were quickly in possession of the advanced force of Burnside. 
That march over the mountains was a most arduous one and pen can not portray 
the sufferings of the Union troops while thus engaged. At Knoxville the One 
Hundred and Third, with other regiments, was placed on cars and moved on to 
Henderson Station, and subsequently to Greenville, where later it joined the 
general advance against the enemy, then assembling at Jonesboro. The rebels 
were routed, but made another stand at Blue Springs, where they were attacked 
by the Union forces. Other gray regiments came up to bear their part in the 
encounter and a hot battle ensued, which resulted in the defeat of the enemy. 
In the early part of November the brigade to which the One Hundred and Third 
Ohio belonged, returned by rail to Knoxville, and during the siege of that 
place by Longstreet suffered the greatest hardships and privations. There the 
regiment took part in the sanguinary battle of Armstrong's Hill, resulting in 
the repulse of the rebels. The loss of the One Hundred and Third amounted to 
thirty-five men killed and wounded. On the approach of General Sherman the 
enemy withdrew and the regiment went to Strawberry Plains and afterward to 
Bean Station, whence it soon returned to Strawberry Plains. On the 12th of 
March, 1864, it was ordered to join the pursuit of Longstreet and proceeded to 
Morrison, then to Mossy Creek, and later with the army advanced to Bull's Gap. 
Longstreet having been driven from East Tennessee, the One Hundred and Third 
was ordered to Chattanooga to join the forces under Sherman for service in the 
Atlanta campaign. They arrived on the 13th of May in front of Resaca and after 
the two ranking captains were killed on the following day the general took 
command of his troops in the charge against the enemy's works. His regiment 
fought gallantly and effectively, but in the desperate encounter lost one-
third of its available force. It joined in pursuit of the defeated army, 
marching through Cartersville and across the Chattahoochie river, and later 
continued on the steady and persistent advance to Atlanta, taking part in all 
the engagements of the brigade leading up to fall of the rebel stronghold. The 
next move of General Hayes' regiment was to accompany the Twenty-third Army 
Corps to Decatur, where it went into camp. The regiment's loss in that 
campaign was as heavy as its service was effective. For one hundred days it 
was almost constantly under fire, losing large numbers of both officers and 
men. After the fall of Atlanta, General Hayes was appointed provost marshal 
general on the staff of General J. M. Schofield, which position he held until 
he was mustered out of the service. With his command he moved back to 
Nashville, Tennessee, marched to Pulaski, took part in the battles of Franklin 
and Nashville, and, after the defeat of Hood's army, accompanied General 
Schofield to Alexandria, Virginia, and thence to Fort Fisher, North Carolina. 
On the 24th of February, 1865, the corps to which the general's regiment 
belonged arrived at Wilmington, and, after remaining there for a few days, 
proceeded through Kingston to Goldsboro, where it met Sherman's army, and a 
reunion of the soldiers was held. Thence the army resumed its march, and on 
the 13th of April reached Raleigh, where the One Hundred and Third remained 
until the 12th of June, when it was ordered to Cleveland, Ohio, and there 
mustered out June 22, 1865. General Hayes then at once returned to his home. 
His record as a soldier is a brilliant one. He was in the thickest of the 
fight in many of the most important engagements of the service, but was 
fortunate in that he escaped all injury. On the 5th of December, 1864, he was 
promoted from the rank of captain to that of lieutenant colonel. Meritorious 
service later won him the rank of colonel, and on the 13th of March, 1865, he 
was brevetted brigadier general. Fearless and true he led his men in many a 
gallant charge and won the love of those who served under him and the 
confidence and respect of his superior officers. Two of his brothers, Timothy 
E. and James H., were also in the army and the latter was severely wounded. 
The One Hundred and Third Ohio Regiment was at the front during the entire 
Atlanta campaign and that its service was arduous is manifest by its heavy 
losses. It had five hundred men when it entered the campaign and at its close 
there remained only one hundred and ninety-six who were able to enter upon 
field service. The following letter was written by General Cameron, the 
brigade commander, and fully testifies to the high standing of General Hayes 
in the army: HEADQUARTERS SECOND BRIGADE, THIRD DIVISION, TWENTY-THIRD CORPS, 
BEFORE ATLANTA, GEORGIA, July 30, 1864. Hon. John Brough, Governor of Ohio, 
Columbus, Ohio. Governor:—I have much pleasure in recommending to the 
favorable consideration of your Excellency, Captain P. C. Hayes, One Hundred 
and Third Ohio Volunteer Infantry. Captain Hayes is, in my opinion, one of the 
best officers in this army. I have been familiar with the service rendered by 
him in the present campaign and in eastern Tennessee. I have always found him 
energetic, intelligent and faithful in the discharge of every duty. At two 
different times I have had occasion to commend him to the notice of my 
military superiors as most worthy of promotion for gallant service rendered on 
the field. I can consistently recommend Captain Hayes as worthy and well 
qualified to fill a higher position than his present one. His experience and 
efficiency as an officer would be of great value in any organization now 
forming, and as several new regiments are said to be raising in Ohio I ask for 
the captain your Excellency's most favorable consideration. I have the honor 
to be Your Excellency's obedient servant, DANIEL CAMERON, Colonel Commanding 
Brigade. From General Grant he received the following letter: "Brigadier 
General Philip C. Hayes: You are hereby informed that the President of the 
United States has appointed you, for gallant and meritorious service during 
the war, a brigadier general of volunteers by brevet. U. S. GRANT, General." 
Although a military record may be brilliant and it is an acknowledged fact 
that the country owes to her soldiers of the Civil war a debt of gratitude 
that can never be repaid, one can not judge any individual solely by a single 
epoch in his life history and while General Hayes' service on the field won 
him distinguished and well merited honors there are other phases in his record 
which have been equally creditable and have made him a valued citizen in days 
of peace. Returning to Ohio at the close of the war, he took up again the 
pursuits of civic life as superintendent of the public schools at Mount 
Vernon, acceptably serving in that capacity until the fall of 1866, when, as 
publisher of the Circleville Union at Circleville, Ohio, he entered the field 
of journalism. Publishing that paper until the spring of 1869, he then sold 
out and purchased the Bryan Press, which he edited until 1874. Removing to 
Illinois he then became owner of the Morris Herald, which he published 
continuously until 1892, when he also became owner of a controlling interest 
in the Republican of Joliet. The various papers with which he has been 
connected made steady and substantial progress under his guidance and had more 
than local weight in molding public thought and action. General Hayes has 
likewise long been recognized as a leader in republican circles and his 
opinions have frequently been decisive factors in the councils of the 
republican party. In 1876 he received his party's nomination for congress as 
representative for the seventh district, embracing the counties of Grundy, 
LaSalle, Kendall and Will. He took his seat in the house on the 4th of March, 
1877, and by re-election was continued there until the 4th of March, 1881. He 
proved an able working member of that body and was connected with much 
constructive legislation. His congressional record was as creditable as his 
military service had been and showed equal devotion to the country at large. 
While fearless and positive in support of his honest convictions, he does not 
jump at conclusions, but on the contrary shows a mind of judicial tendency in 
his consideration of any question from every possible standpoint. On the 25th 
of January, 1865, at Oberlin, Ohio, was celebrated the marriage of General 
Hayes and Miss Amelia Estelle Johnson, a daughter of Dr. Homer and Ann 
Johnson, who were descended from New England ancestry of worth and prominence. 
General and Mrs. Hayes became the parents of six children, of whom Jessie, 
Ralph W., Milo C. and Mary are still living. They lost their first born, Carl 
J., and their fourth child, Georgie. General Hayes holds membership in 
Bartleson post, No. 6, G. A. R., of Joliet, and is also connected with the 
Loyal Legion. While living in Morris, Illinois, he served for some years as 
commander of Darveau post, No. 329. His services are frequently called into 
requisition on Decoration day and other memorial occasions and he is a fluent 
speaker, whose oratorical power enables him to easily hold the attention of an 
audience. He has addressed many gatherings upon political questions as well, 
having been active in every political campaign from 1868 to 1900 and doing 
much by his speaking to strengthen and build up his party. He is the author of 
two books, "The History of the Hundred and Third Ohio Regiment" and "Socialism 
and What It Means." Such, in brief, is the life history of General Hayes. In 
whatever relation we find him—in the government service, in political circles, 
in business or in social relations—he is always the same honorable and honored 
gentleman, whose worth well merits the high regard which is uniformly given 
him. 

Additional Comments:
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907

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