- Jan 7 Stephen Miller, American politician (Governor of Minnesota) Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Perry County, Pennsylvania (d. 1881)
- Jan 9 John Palmer Usher, Secretary of the Interior under Lincoln during US Civil War (1863-1865), born in Brookfield, New York (d. 1889)
- Jan 11 Fitz Henry Warren, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Brimfield, Massachusetts (d. 1878)
- Jan 15 Marie LaFarge, French murderer, born in Paris, France (d. 1852)
- Jan 19 Henry Gray, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1892)
- Jan 23 Compars Herrmann, German stage magician, born in Hanover, Germany (d. 1887)
- Jan 26 Lloyd Tilghman, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1863)
- Jan 30 Nathaniel Prentiss Banks, American politician, Major General (Union Army), born in Waltham, Massachusetts (d. 1894)
- Feb 17 Friedrich Wilhelm Markull, German composer and musician, born in Reichenbach, Prussia (d. 1887)
- Feb 17 Haller Nutt, American rich Southern Plantation owner (Longwood house - largest octagonal house in the US), born at Laurel Hill Plantation, Mississippi (d. 1864)
- Feb 18 Thomas D. Doubleday, American bookstore owner and Union Army officer, born in Albany, New York (d. 1864)
- Mar 2 Alexander H. Bullock, 26th Governor of Massachusetts (d. 1882)
James Donnelly (1816-1880)
Mar 7 Irish-Canadian patriarch of the Donnelly family (Black Donnelly massacre), born in Ireland
- Mar 12 David Stuart, American politician, Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Brooklyn, New York (d. 1868)
- Mar 14 Montgomery Dent Corse, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Alexandria, Virginia (d. 1895)
- Mar 19 Johannes Verhulst, Dutch composer and conductor, born in The Hague, Netherlands (d. 1891)
- Mar 27 George Elvey, British organist and composer, born in Canterbury, England (d. 1893)
- Mar 29 James Gallant Spears, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Bledsoe County, Tennessee (d. 1869)
- Mar 29 Tsultrim Gyatso, 10th Dalai Lama, born in Chamdo (d. 1837)
- Apr 5 Samuel Freeman Miller, U.S. Supreme Court Justice, born in Richmond, Kentucky (d. 1890)
- Apr 8 Frederic William Burton, Irish painter, born in Wicklow, Ireland (d. 1900)
- Apr 13 William Sterndale Bennett, English composer, born in Sheffield, Yorkshire (d. 1875)
- Apr 16 Edward Johnson, American Major General (Confederate Army), born in Midlothian, Virginia (d. 1873)
- Apr 17 Thomas Hazlehurst, English Methodist chapel builder, born in Runcorn, Cheshire, England (d. 1876)
Charlotte Brontë (1816-1855)
Apr 21 English novelist (Jane Eyre), born in Thornton, West Yorkshire, England
- Apr 21 Louis Wigfall, American politician (Confederate States Senator from Texas 1862-85), born in Edgefield, South Carolina (d. 1874)
- Apr 22 Charles-Denis Bourbaki, French general, born in Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, France (d. 1897)
- Apr 22 Philip James Bailey, English poet (Festus), born in Nottingham, England (d. 1902)
- May 3 Montgomery Cunningham Meigs, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Washington, D.C. (d. 1892)
- May 14 Gualtiero Sanelli, Italian composer, born in Parma, Duchy of Parma and Piacenza (now Italy) (d. 1861)
- May 16 Henry Hopkins Sibley, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1886)
- May 24 Emanuel Leutze, American painter (Washington Crossing the Delaware), born in Schwäbisch Gmünd, Württemberg, German Confederation (d. 1868)
- May 24 Robert Seaman Granger, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Zanesville, Ohio (d. 1894)
- Jun 4 Régis de Trobriand, French aristocrat, lawyer and Bvt Mjr Gen (Union), born in Tours, France (d. 1897)
- Jun 11 Robert Huston Milroy, American Major General (Union Army), born in Salem, Indiana (d. 1890)
- Jun 19 William Henry Webb, American industrialist and philanthropist, born in NYC, New York (d. 1899)
- Jun 29 Jacob van Zuylen van Nijevelt, Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs (1852-53), born in Dordrecht, Netherlands (d. 1890)
- Jul 4 Hiram Walker, American entrepreneur and founder of the Hiram Walker and Sons Ltd. distillery, born in East Douglas, Massachusetts (d. 1899)
- Jul 7 Isaac Fitzgerald Shepard, American General (Union Army), born in Natick, Massachusetts on (d. 1889)
- Jul 11 French-Andries Durlet, Belgian sculptor and architect, born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1867)
- Jul 13 Gustav Freytag, German writer and playwright (Debit and Credit), born in Kreuzburg, Silesia (d. 1895)
- Jul 14 Arthur de Gobineau, French philosopher (d. 1882)
- Jul 20 William Bowman, English anatomist, born in Nantwich, Cheshire (d. 1892)
- Jul 21 Paul Julius Baron von Reuter, German-born founder of Reuters news service, born in Kassel (d. 1899)
- Jul 23 Charlotte Saunders Cushman, American actress (Lady MacBeth), born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1876)
- Jul 24 Józef Michał Poniatowski, Poilsh-Italian operatic tenor and composer (d. 1873)
- Jul 25 Christian Bernhard Tauchnitz, German publisher (T Edition), born in Unterkaka, Meineweh, Germany (d. 1895)
- Jul 31 George Henry Thomas, American Major General (Union Army), born in Newsoms, Virginia (d. 1870)
- Jul 31 Lydia Moss Bradley, American bank president, philanthropist, and college founder (Bradley Polytechnic Institute), born in Vevay, Indiana (d. 1908)
- Aug 3 John E. Smith, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Berne, Switzerland (d. 1897)
- Aug 4 Israel Vogdes, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Chester County, Pennsylvania (d. 1889)
- Aug 16 Joseph Robinson, Irish singer, organist and composer, born in Dublin (d. 1898)
- Aug 19 Julius van Zuylen van Nijevelt, Dutch minister of Foreign affairs, born in Dommeldange, Luxembourg (d. 1894)
- Aug 21 Charles Frédéric Gerhardt, French chemist, born in Strasbourg, France (d. 1856)
- Aug 24 Daniel Gooch, English engineer, laid 1st successful transatlantic cables, born in Bedlington, Northumberland, England (d. 1889)
- Sep 1 Gustav Schmidt, German composer and conductor, born in Weimar, Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (now Germany) (d. 1882)
- Sep 4 François Bazin, French composer, born in Marseille, France (d. 1878)
- Sep 6 Francis Stebbins Bartow, Confederate colonel, born in Chatham County, Georgia (d. 1861)
- Sep 11 Carl Zeiss, German scientific instrument and lens maker (Carl Zeiss AG), born in Weimar, German Confederation (d. 1888)
- Sep 15 Edward Wolff, Polish pianist and composer, born in Warsaw, Poland (d. 1880)
- Sep 23 Elihu Benjamin Washburne, MC (Union), (d. 1887)
- Sep 23 Julius White, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Cazenovia, New York (d. 1890)
- Sep 25 Anton de Kontski [Antoni Kątski], Polish-American pianist and composer (Awakening Of The Lion), born in Kraków, Poland (d. 1899) [some sources cite birth as 1817-10-27]
- Oct 4 Egbert Benson Brown, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Brownsville, New York (d. 1902)
- Oct 6 William Batchelder Bradbury, American composer, born in York, Maine (d. 1868)
- Oct 15 Amiel Weeks Whipple, American Major General (Union Army), born in Greenwich, Massachusetts (d. 1863)
- Oct 16 William Preston, American lawyer, politician and Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Louisville, Kentucky (d. 1887)
- Oct 29 Ferdinand II, German prince of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry and King of Portugal (1837-53), born in Palais Coburg, Vienna, Austrian Empire (d. 1885)
- Nov 3 Jubal Early, American General (Confederate Army), born in Franklin County, Virginia (d. 1894)
- Nov 4 Stephen Johnson Field, Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (d. 1899)
- Nov 4 William Polk Hardeman, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Williamson County, Tennessee (d. 1898)
- Nov 14 John Curwen, English Congregationalist minister and founder of Tonic sol-fa music system, born in Heckmondwike, Yorkshire (d. 1880)
- Nov 15 Joseph Bennett Plummer, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Barre, Massachusetts (d. 1862)
- Nov 17 August Wilhelm Ambros, Austrian Czech musicologist (History of Music), born in Vysoké Mýto, Bohemia (d. 1876)
- Nov 26 William H. T. Walker, American Major General (Confederate Army), born in Augusta, Georgia (d. 1864)
- Nov 29 Carl Binder, Austrian composer, born in Vienna (d. 1860)
- Nov 29 Morrison Waite, American jurist (Seventh Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court), born in Lyme, Connecticut (d. 1888)
- Dec 6 Henry Eustace McCulloch, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Rutherford County, Tennessee (d. 1895)
- Dec 8 August Belmont, Prussian-American financier and diplomat (U.S. Minister to the Netherlands 1853-57), born in Alzey, Hesse, Germany (d. 1890)
- Dec 13 Clement Claiborne Clay, American politician (U.S. Senator from Alabama), born in Huntsville, Alabama (d. 1882)
Werner von Siemens (1816-1892)
Dec 13 German inventor (siemens electrical conductance unit) and industrialist (Siemens corporation), born in Lenthe, German Confederation
