- Feb 6 Yisrael Meir Kagan [Chofetz Chayim], Belarusian rabbi, born in Dzyatlava, Belarus (d. 1933)
- Feb 12 Charles C. Walcutt, American general in the Union Army during the American Civil War, born in Columbus, Ohio (d. 1898)
- Feb 14 Margaret E. Knight, American inventor (flat-bottomed paper bag), described as a "female Thomas Edison", born in York, Maine (d. 1914)
- Feb 16 Arnoldus Pannevis, South African ship's doctor/linguist
- Feb 16 Henry Adams, historian, writer (Education of Henry Adams), born in Boston, Massachusetts
- Feb 18 Ernst Mach, Chirlitz-Turas Austria, physicist/philosopher/psychologist
- Feb 20 James Barbour Terrill, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1864)
- Feb 23 Gilbert Moxley Sorrel, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1901)
- Feb 24 Thomas Benton Smith, Brigadier General (Confederate Army), (d. 1923)
- Feb 28 Maurice Lévy, French engineer (d. 1910)