- Jan 1 William Lewis Cabell ", Old Tige" American Brigadier General (Confederate Army) and Mayor of Dallas, born in Danville, Virginia (d. 1911)
- Jan 2 Peter Semenov of Tian Shan, Russian explorer (d. 1914)
- Jan 6 John Calvin Brown, Major General (Confederate Army), born in Giles County, Tennessee (d. 1889)
- Jan 6 John Wesley Frazer, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Hardin County, Tennessee (d. 1906)
- Jan 7 Sir Sandford Fleming, Scottish-Canadian engineer; introduced Universal Standard Time (d. 1915)
- Jan 21 Ivan Pervushin, Russian mathematician, born in Perm Oblast, Russia (d. 1900)
- Jan 23 Saigō Takamori, Japanese samurai & leader of Satsuma rebellion, born in Kajiyacho, Japan (d. 1877)
- Feb 1 Alphonse de Rothschild, French banker, born in Paris, France (d. 1905)
- Feb 2 Abner Monroe Perrin, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1864)
- Feb 2 Oswald Aschenbach, German landscape painter, born in Düsseldorf, Prussia (d. 1905)
- Feb 19 Charles Robert Woods, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Newark, Ohio (d. 1855)
- Feb 20 Edward Stuyvesant Bragg, American politician, lawyer and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Unadilla, New York (d. 1912)
- Feb 22 James Barnet Fry, American historian and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Carrollton, Illinois (d. 1894)
- Feb 24 Charles Davis Jameson, American politician and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Gorham, Maine (d. 1862)
- Feb 27 Richard W Johnson, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Livingston County, Kentucky (d. 1897)
- Mar 7 Henry DeLamar Clayton, Major General (Confederate Army), (d. 1889)
- Mar 8 Wilhelm Bleek, German linguist (Father of Bantu Philology), born in Berlin (d. 1875)
- Mar 12 John Robert Jones, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1901)
- Mar 12 William Richard Terry, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1897)
- Mar 19 Alexander Shaler, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Haddam, Connecticut (d. 1911)
- Apr 2 William Holman Hunt, English painter (Light of the World), born in Cheapside, London (d. 1910)
- Apr 5 Joseph Lister, British surgeon (pioneer of antiseptic surgery), born in Upton House, West Ham, England (d. 1912)
- Apr 8 Ramón Emeterio Betances, Puerto Rican politician, medical doctor and diplomat, born in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico (d. 1898)
- Apr 10 Lewis "Lew" Wallace, American author (Ben-Hur) and Major General (Union Army), born in Brookville, Indiana (d. 1905)
- Apr 14 Augustus Pitt Rivers, English archaeologist, born in Bramham cum Oglethorpe, Wetherby, Yorkshire (d. 1900)
- Apr 16 Octave Crémazie, French Canadian poet, born in Quebec City, Canada (d. 1879)
- Apr 17 Frans Baeckelmans, Flemish architect (St Amanduskerk, Antwerp), born in Antwerp, Belgium (d. 1896)
- Apr 20 John Gibbon, American Major General (Union Army), born in Holmesburg, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1896)
- Apr 22 William Hopkins Morris, American author, editor, inventor, and Major General (Union Army), born in (d. 1900)
- Apr 23 Johann Friedrich von Schulte, German Catholic lawyer, born in Winterberg, Germany (d. 1914)
- Apr 26 Charles Edward Hovey, American lobbyist and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Thetford, Vermont (d. 1897)
- May 4 John Hanning Speke, British explorer, the first European to reach Lake Victoria in east Africa, born in Bideford, Devon (d. 1864)
- May 7 Francis Engle Patterson, American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1862)
- May 11 Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, French sculptor and painter (d. 1875)
- May 16 P.J.H. [Pierre] Cuypers, Dutch architect (Amsterdam Museum, Central station), born in Roermond, the Netherlands (d. 1921)
- May 19 Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour, French statesman (d. 1896)
- May 21 Konstantin Pobedonostsev, Russian reactionary lawyer and senator, born in Moscow, Russian Empire (d. 1907)
- May 21 William P. Sprague, American politician from Ohio (d. 1899)
- May 27 Samuel F. Miller, American politician (Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New York), born in Franklin, New York (d. 1892)
- May 29 Reuben Lindsay Walker, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Logan, Virginia (d. 1890)
- Jun 5 Beverly Holcombe Robertson, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Amelia County, Virginia (d. 1910)
- Jun 12 Johanna Spyri, Swiss children's book author (Heidi), born in Hirzel, Switzerland (d. 1901)
- Jun 13 Alberto Henschel, German-Brazilian photographer and businessman, born in Berlin, Germany (d. 1882)
- Jul 7 James Murrell Shackelford, American lawyer, judge, and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Lincoln County, Kentucky (d. 1909)
- Jul 7 William Montague Browne, Brigadier General (Confederate Army)
- Jul 17 Frederick Able, English chemist and inventor (cordiet), born in Woolwich, England (d. 1902)
- Jul 18 Pierre-Lambert Goossens, Belgian archbishop of Mechelen and Cardinal Primate of Belgium, born in Perk, Steenokkerzeel, Belgium (d. 1906)
- Jul 19 Mangal Pandey, Indian Sepoy (soldier) in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry (B.N.I.) regiment of the British East India Company, born in Nagwa, Ballia district, India (d. 1857)
- Jul 23 Pieter Caland, Dutch hydraulic engineer (New Waterway), born in Zierikzee, Zeeland, Netherlands (d. 1902)
- Jul 24 Julius A. De Lagnel, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Newark, New Jersey (d. 1912)
- Aug 5 Deodoro da Fonseca, Brazilian military officer and first President of Brazil (1889-91), born in Vila Madalena, Brazil (d. 1892)
- Aug 22 Ezra Butler Eddy, Canadian businessman (E.B. Eddy Company) and politician, born in Vermont (d. 1906)
- Aug 22 Joseph Anthony Mower, American Major General (Union Army), born in Woodstock, Vermont (d. 1870)
- Aug 24 Walter Husted Stevens, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Penn Yan, New York (d. 1867)
- Aug 28 Grand Duchess Catherine Mikhailovna of Russia, born in St. Petersburg, Russia (d. 1894)
- Sep 1 Jacobus J Cremer, painter/author (Overbetuwsche Novellen)
- Sep 5 Goffredo Mameli, Italian poet and writer, born in Genoa, Italy (d. 1849)
- Sep 6 John Morrison Oliver, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Penn Yan, New York (d. 1872)
- Sep 16 Jean Albert Gaudry, French geologist and palaeontologist, born in St Germain-en-Laye, France (d. 1908)
- Sep 21 Michael Corcoran, Irish-American Brigadier General (Union Army), born in County Sligo, Ireland (d. 1863)
- Sep 22 John Grubb Parke, American Major General (Union Army), born in NYC, New York (d. 1900)
- Sep 24 Henry Warner Slocum, American politician and Major General (Union Army), born in Pompey, New York (d. 1894)
Hiram R. Revels (1827-1901)
Sep 27 American clergyman, politician,1st African American in Congress (US Senator from Mississippi, 1870-71), and college president (Alcorn, 1871-82), born in Fayetteville, North Carolina
- Sep 30 Ellis H. Roberts, American Treasurer of the United States (1897-1905) and politician (Rep-R-New York), born in Utica, New York (d. 1918)
- Sep 30 Kenner Garrard, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Bourbon County, Kentucky (d. 1879)
- Oct 2 Edmund Jackson Davis, American lawyer, soldier, and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in St. Augustine, Florida (d. 1883)
- Oct 14 James Sidney Robinson, American politician and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Mansfield, Ohio (d. 1892)
- Oct 14 William Harcourt, British Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer, born in York, England (d. 1904)
- Oct 21 Petrus PM Alberdingk Thijm, Dutch historian/writer
- Oct 29 Marcellin Berthelot, French chemist (Thomsen–Berthelot principle of thermochemistry), born in Paris (d. 1907)
- Oct 31 Richard Morris Hunt, American architect and educator, born in Brattleboro, Vermont (d. 1895)
- Nov 10 Alfred Howe Terry, American Major General (Union Army), born in Hartford, Connecticut (d. 1890)
- Nov 14 Isaac Wistar, American lawyer, author, and Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1905)
- Nov 17 Petko Slavejkov, Bulgarian writer (d. 1895)
- Nov 19 Isaac M. St. John, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Augusta, Georgia (d. 1880)
- Nov 26 Alfred Moore Scales, American politician (45th Governor of North Carolina), born in Reidsville, North Carolina (d. 1892)
Ellen G. White (1827-1915)
Nov 26 American religious leader and co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, born in Gorham, Maine
- Nov 30 Henri Ernest Baillon, French botanist (History of Plants), born in Calais, France (d. 1895)
- Dec 10 Eugene O'Keefe, Canadian businessman and brewer (O'Keefe Brewery Company of Toronto Limited), born in Bandon, County Cork (d. 1913)
- Dec 16 Jean Abraham Oudemans, Dutch geographer and astronomer, born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, (d. 1906)
- Dec 23 Wilhelm Freiherr von Tegetthoff, Austrian admiral (Helgoland/Lissa), born in Marburg, Styria, Austrian Empire (d. 1871)
- Dec 28 Robert Latimer McCook, volunteers Brigadier General (Union), (d. 1862)