- Jan 1 Robert Lawson, New Zealand architect (d. 1902)
- Jan 2 Frederick A. Johnson, American politician (d. 1893)
- Jan 7 Henry Enfield Roscoe, English chemist (vanadium and photochemistry), born in London (d. 1915)
- Jan 23 John Randolph Chambliss Jr, American Brigadier-General (Confederate Army), born in Greensville County, Virginia (d. 1864)
- Jan 28 Charles George Gordon, British general (put down Taiping rebellion in China) and administrator (Governor-General of Sudan), born in London, England (d. 1885)
- Feb 1 Henry McNeal Turner, Newberry South Carolina, Minister and politician, 1st African American Methodist Bishop (d. 1915)
- Feb 3 Thomas Theodoor Hendrikus Jorissen, Dutch historian (d. 1889)
J.E.B. Stuart (1833-1864)
Feb 6 Confederate General in the American Civil War, born in Patrick County, Virginia
- Feb 6 José María de Pereda, Spanish novelist, born in Polanco, Spain (d. 1906)
- Feb 7 Ricardo Palma, Peruvian writer and poet (Tradiciones Peruanas), born in Lima, Peru (d. 1919)
- Feb 11 Melville Fuller, American 8th chief justice, born in Augusta, Maine (d. 1910)
- Feb 13 William Whedbee Kirkland, American Brigadier-General (Confederate Army), born in Hillsboro, North Carolina (d. 1915)
- Feb 18 James Deshler, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1863)
- Feb 22 Josef Foerster, Czech composer and music teacher, born in Osenice, Bohemia, Austro-Hungarian Empire (d. 1907)
- Feb 24 Eduard Taaffe, Austrian politician (Minister-President of Austria 1868-70, 79-93), born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1895)
- Feb 25 Clement Anselm Evans, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1911)
- Feb 25 Julie Verstraete-Lacquet, Flemish actress and mother of Theodoor Verstraete, born in Ghent, Belgium (d. 1903)
- Feb 28 Alfred von Schlieffen, Prussian fieldmarshal (Schlieffen Plan), born in Prussia (d. 1913)
- Mar 9 Frederick A. Schroeder, American tobacco industrialist and mayor of Brooklyn, born in Trier, Germany (d. 1899)
- Mar 14 John S. Marmaduke, 25th Governor of Missouri and Major General (Confederate Army), born in Saline County, Missouri (d. 1887)
- Mar 14 Lucy Hobbs Taylor, 1st American woman dentist (1866), and women's rights activist, born in Constable, New York (d. 1910)
- Mar 20 Henry Southwick Perkins, American composer, educator, and founder of Music Teachers' National Association, born in Stockbridge, Vermont (d. 1914)
- Mar 26 Betsy Perk [Christina Elizabeth], Dutch journalist, writer and pioneer of the Dutch women's movement, born in Delft, Netherlands (d. 1906)
- Apr 2 Thomas Howard Ruger, American lawyer and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Livingston County, New York (d. 1907)
- Apr 6 Johan Hendrik Kern, Dutch linguist (Sanskrit, Old Javan), born in Purworejo, Dutch East Indies (d. 1917)
- Apr 10 David McMurtrie Gregg, American diplomat and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Huntingdon, Pennsylvania (d. 1916)
- Apr 10 James Edward Rains, American lawyer and Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Nashville, Tennessee (d. 1862)
- Apr 17 Jean-Baptiste Accolay, Belgian composer, born in Brussels, Belgium (d. 1900)
- May 5 Ferdinand von Richthofen, German geographer and explorer, born in Carlsruhe, Prussian Silesia (d. 1905)
Johannes Brahms (1833-1897)
May 7 German composer and conductor (Hungarian Dances; A German Requiem), born in Hamburg, Germany
- May 8 Frank Wheaton, Bvt Major General (Union Army), born in Providence, Rhode Island (d. 1903)
- May 9 Boleslaw Dembinski, Polish organist and composer, born in Poznań (d. 1914)
- Jun 1 John Marshall Harlan, American lawyer and Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1877-1911), born in Boyle County, Kentucky (d. 1911)
- Jun 4 Garnet Wolseley, 1st Viscount Wolseley, British army general, born in Dublin (d. 1913)
- Jun 7 Alexander Ritter, German composer, born in Narva, Estonia (d. 1896)
- Jun 9 John Rogers Cooke, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1891)
- Jun 12 George Stevens, English jockey (record 5 Grand National wins), born in Cheltenham, England (d. 1871)
- Jun 15 Edward Moody McCook, American lawyer, politician and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Steubenville, Ohio (d. 1909)
- Jun 20 Léon Bonnat, French painter, born in Bayonne, France (d. 1922)
- Jun 27 Władysław Zaremba, Ukrainian pianist and composer, born in Dunajowce, Ukraine (d. 1902)
- Jun 30 Willie Park Sr., Scottish golfer (British Open 1860, 63, 66, 75), born in Wallyford, East Lothian (d. 1903)
- Jul 1 Alfred Thomas Archimedes Torbert, Bvt Major General (Union Army), born in Georgetown, Delaware (d. 1880)
- Jul 10 Lucius E. Polk, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Salisbury, North Carolina (d. 1892)
- Jul 19 John Wesley Turner, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Saratoga, New York (d. 1899)
- Jul 22 Benjamin Hanby, American composer ("Jolly Old Saint Nicholas"), born in Rushville, Ohio (d. 1867)
- Jul 27 Thomas George Bonney, English geologist, born in Rugeley, United Kingdom (d. 1923)
- Jul 28 James Henry Lane, Brigadier General during Civil War (Confederate), born in Mathews Court House, Virginia (d. 1907)
- Aug 3 Auguste Schmidt, German teacher and feminist, born in Breslau, Germany (d. 1902)
- Aug 5 Carola of Vasa, Queen consort of Saxony, born in Vienna (d. 1907)
- Aug 7 Powell Clayton, American politician, diplomat, and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Delaware County, Pennsylvania (d. 1914)
- Aug 11 Kido Takayoshi, Japanese politician (d. 1877)
- Aug 11 Robert G. Ingersoll, American writer, orator and agnostic, born in Dresden, New York (d. 1899)
- Aug 12 William Price Sanders, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Frankfort, Kentucky (d. 1863)
Benjamin Harrison (1833-1901)
Aug 20 23rd President of the United States (Republican: 1889-93), born in North Bend, Ohio
Ernesto Teodoro Moneta (1833-1918)
Sep 20 Italian journalist, soldier and pacifist (Nobel Peace Prize 1907), born in Milan, Lombardy
- Sep 21 Josef Richard Rozkošný, Czech composer, born in Prague (d. 1913)
- Sep 22 Stephen Dill Lee, American 1st president of Mississippi State University, Lt General in Confederate Army, born in Charleston, South Carolina (d. 1908)
- Sep 24 Henry Alanson Barnum, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Jamesville, New York (d. 1892)
- Sep 28 James Deering Fessenden, American lawyer, politician, and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Westbrook, Maine (d. 1862)
- Sep 30 Ferdinand von Saar, Austrian novelist, playwright and poet, born in Vienna, Austria (d. 1906)
- Oct 2 William Corby, American Catholic priest and President of the University of Notre Dame, born in Detroit, Michigan (d. 1897)
- Oct 5 Cyrus Bussey, American politician and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Hubbard, Ohio (d. 1915)
- Oct 15 Klaas Kater, Dutch Christian Worker's Union Leader, born in Amsterdam (d. 1916)
- Oct 17 Paul Bert, French Zoologist, Physiologist and pioneer of aerospace medicine whose study of the effects of air pressure on the body, such as altitude sickness and 'the bends', made possible space and ocean exploration, born in Auxerre, Burgundy (d. 1886)
- Oct 18 Johannes Habert, Austrian composer, born in Oberplan, Bohemia (now Horní Planá, Czech Republic) (d. 1896)
Alfred Nobel (1833-1896)
Oct 21 Swedish chemist who invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prizes, born in Stockholm, Sweden
- Nov 2 Mahendralal Sarkar, Indian homeopath doctor and founder of the Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, born in Paikpara village, Howrah, India (d. 1904)
- Nov 3 Edward D. Tracy, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Macon, Georgia (d. 1863)
- Nov 6 Jonas Lie, Norwegian author (The Family at Gilje: A Domestic Story of the Forties), born in Hokksund, Eiker, Norway (d. 1908)
- Nov 9 Sally Louisa Tompkins, American nurse and philanthropist, only woman commissioned in Confederate army during US Civil War, born in Mathews City, Virginia (d. 1916)
- Nov 10 Dobri Voynikov, Bulgarian teacher, playwright and journalist (The Phoney Civilization), born in Şumnu, Ottoman Empire (d. 1878)
- Nov 12 Alexander Borodin, Russian chemist and composer (Robert LeDiable), born in Saint Petersburg, Russia (d. 1887)
Edwin Booth (1833-1893)
Nov 13 American Shakespearean actor (Hamlet), born in Bel Air, Maryland
- Nov 14 Antonius von der Linde, Dutch-German librarian and historian (history of chess), born in Haarlem, Netherlands (d. 1897)
- Nov 19 Wilhelm Dilthey, German philosopher (Das Leben Schleiermans), born in Wiesbaden-Biebrich, German Confederation (d. 1911)
- Nov 24 Antoine Labelle, Quebec catholic priest (d. 1891)
- Nov 27 Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge, granddaughter of George III, grandmother of Edward VIII and George VI and great-grandmother of Elizabeth II, born in Hanover, Germany (d. 1897)
- Nov 29 Louis Douglass Watkins, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Tallahassee, Florida, (d. 1868)
John Singleton Mosby (1833-1916)
Dec 6 Confederate army cavalry battalion commander in the American Civil War, born in Powhatan County, Virginia
- Dec 12 Matthias Hohner, German manufacturer (harmonica), born in Trossingen, Germany (d. 1902)
- Dec 17 James T. Holtzclaw, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in McDonough, Georgia (d. 1893)
- Dec 20 Samuel Mudd, American physician (imprisoned for conspiring with John Wilkes Booth), born in Charles Country, Maryland (d. 1883)
- Dec 28 Charles Miller Shelley, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1907)
- Dec 29 John James Ingalls, US politician (Rep-Ks), born in Middleton, Massachusetts (d. 1900)