- Dec 8 Clinton Bowen Fisk, American abolitionist, Brevet Major General (Union Army), helped establish 1st free public schools in the South, born in York, New York (d. 1890)
- Dec 8 Robert Bullock, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Greenville, North Carolina (d. 1905)
- Dec 16 John Beatty, American banker, statesman, and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Sandusky, Ohio (d. 1914)
- Dec 23 Mathilde Wesendonk, German writer and poet (Tagebuchblatter) whom composer Richard Wagner was infatuated with, born in Elberfeld (d. 1902)
- Dec 28 Karl Ludwig Kahlbaum, German psychiatrist (pioneer in classifying mental health), born in Driesen, Prussia (d. 1899)
- Dec 30 Mark Perrin Lowrey, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1885)