- Aug 8 Emilie Flygare-Carlén, Swedish novelist (d. 1892)
- Aug 11 David Rice Atchison, American politician (not President of the United States for a day on March 4, 1849), born in Lexington, Kentucky (d. 1886) [1]
- Aug 18 Charles Francis Adams Snr., American writer and diplomat, US Minister to the UK, son of President John Quincy Adams, born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1886)