Philip Cornelius Hayes (February 3, 1833 – July 13, 1916) was a U.S. Representative from Illinois, as well as an officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War.

Born in Granby, Connecticut, Hayes moved with his father's family to La Salle County, Illinois. He attended the country schools and graduated from Oberlin (Ohio) College in 1860 and from the Theological Seminary, Oberlin, Ohio, in 1863.

He enlisted in the Union Army during the Civil War and was commissioned as a captain in the One Hundred and Third Regiment, Ohio Volunteer Infantry on July 16, 1862. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel on November 18, 1864. In the omnibus promotions following the surrender of Confederate forces in the spring of 1865, he was brevetted colonel and brigadier general, dating from March 13, 1865.

Following the war, Hayes returned to Ohio. He became the superintendent of schools in Mount Vernon, Ohio, in 1866. He moved to Circleville, Ohio, in 1867, and then to Bryan, Ohio, in 1869.

In 1874, Hayes moved from Ohio to Morris, Illinois. He served as delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1872. Hayes was elected as a Republican to the Forty-fifth and Forty-sixth Congresses (March 4, 1877 – March 3, 1881). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1880.

He moved to Joliet, Illinois, in 1892, where he resumed journalism. Philip C. Hayes died in Joilet on July 13, 1916, and was interred in Elmhurst Cemetery.
-- Wikipedia