- Aug 1 Richard Henry Dana Jr., American author (Two Years Before the Mast), born in Cambridge, Massachusetts (d. 1882)
- Aug 2 Adolf Friedrich von Schack, German poet, born in Brüsewitz, Germany (d. 1894)
- Aug 4 Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich, Sulz am Neckar, German Physician and advocate of scientific medicine
- Aug 5 Edward John Eyre, British explorer and Governor of Jamaica, born in Whipsnade, England (d. 1901)
- Aug 16 John Bosco, Italian priest, youth worker, educator, founder of the Salesian Society, born in Castelnuovo Don Bosco, Italy (d. 1888)
- Aug 19 John P. McCown, American Major General (Confederate Army), born in Sevier County, Tennessee (d. 1879)
- Aug 29 Anna Ella Carroll, American politician and civil war writer (Reconstruction), born in Pocomoke City, Maryland (d. 1894)