- Aug 1 Joseph Rainey, American politician, 1st African American in US House of Representatives (1870-1879), dies at 55
- Aug 8 Alexander William Doniphan, American lawyer and soldier, dies at 79
- Aug 14 Richard Jefferies, English naturalist and essayist, dies of tuberculosis at 38
- Aug 17 Franz Commer, composer, dies at 74
- Aug 18 Orson Squire Fowler, American phrenologist and lecturer, dies at 77
- Aug 19 Alvan Clark, American astronomer and maker of the Dearborn Observatory telescope, the largest telescope in the world at the time, dies at 83
- Aug 20 Jules Laforgue, French poet (Les Complaintas), dies at 27
- Aug 27 Wilhelm Volkmar, composer, dies at 74