- Jan 2 Tomasz Napoleon Nidecki, Polish composer, born in Studzianka, West Galicia (now Poland) (d. 1852)
- Jan 4 Baltasar Saldoni, Spanish composer and musicologist, born in Barcelona, Spain (d. 1889)
- Jan 6 Joseph Holt, American lawyer, politician and Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Breckinridge County, Kentucky (d. 1894)
- Jan 6 Jozef Maximilián Petzval, Slovak inventor, born in Spišská Belá, Slovakia (d. 1891)
- Jan 6 Ludwig Erk, German composer and folk song collector, born in Wetzlar (d. 1883)
- Jan 11 Alfred E. Jackson "Mudwall", American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Davidson County, Tennessee (d. 1889)
- Jan 11 Ezra Cornell, American businessman and philanthropist (founder of Western Union Telegraph and Cornell University), born in Westchester Landing, New York (d. 1874)
- Jan 12 Jan Theodoor Beelen, Dutch-Belgian bible scholar, born in Amsterdam (d. 1884)
- Jan 13 Napoleon Bonaparte Buford, American Major General (Union Army), born in Woodford County, Kentucky (d. 1883)
- Jan 16 Charles Henry Davis, Rear Admiral (Union Navy), (d. 1877)
Robert E. Lee (1807-1870)
Jan 19 American General who commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War, born in Stratford Virginia
Robert McClure (1807-1873)
Jan 28 Irish explorer who discovered the Northwest passage, born in Wexford, Ireland
- Feb 1 William Bowen Campbell, American politician and Civil War Brigadier General (Union Army), born in Sumner County, Tennessee (d. 1867)
Joseph E. Johnston (1807-1891)
Feb 3 American military officer (senior officer in Confederate Army and United States Army), born in Farmville, Virginia
- Feb 6 Hans Matthison-Hansen, Danish composer, born in Flensburg, Germany (d. 1890)
- Feb 8 Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, English sculptor and naturalist, born in Bloomsbury, London (d. 1894)
- Feb 10 Abner Clark Harding, American politician and Civil War Brigadier General (Union Army), born in East Hampton, Connecticut (d. 1874)
- Feb 13 Bartolomea Capitanio, Italian teacher, co-foundress of the Sisters of Charity of Lovere, and saint, born in Lovere, Bergamo, Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy (d. 1833)
- Feb 15 Ignacy Feliks Dobrzynski, Polish composer, born in Romanów, Russian Empire (d. 1867)
- Feb 16 Lysander Cutler, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Royalston, Massachusetts (d. 1866)
- Feb 25 George Trenholm, South Carolina plantation owner, Secretary of the Treasury for the Confederate States, (d. 1876)
- Feb 27 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, American poet (Song of Hiawatha), born in Portland, Maine (d. 1882)
- Mar 1 Wilford Woodruff, fourth president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (d. 1898)
- Mar 7 Franz Graf von Pocci, German founding director of the Munich Marionette Theatre (Punch and Judy), poet, and illustrator of children's literature (Viola Tricolor: In Picture and Rhyme), born in Munich, Germany (d. 1876)
- Mar 14 Josephine of Leuchtenberg, Queen of Sweden and Norway, born in Milan, Italy (d. 1876)
- Mar 15 Gaetano Gaspari, Italian composer, born in Bologna, Kingdom of Italy (d. 1881)
- Apr 1 Fredrik Cygnaeus, Finnish poet, literary critic and nationis, born in Hämeenlinna, Finland (d. 1881)
- Apr 20 Aloysius Bertrand, French poet (Gaspard de la Nuit - Gaspard of the Night), and playwright, born in Ceva, Piedmont, France (now in Italy) (d. 1841)
- Apr 24 Charles Ferguson Smith, American Major General (Union Army), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1862)
- May 1 John B. Magruder, American Major General (Confederate Army), born in Port Royal, Virginia (d. 1871)
- May 4 Thomas Duncan, Scottish painter, born in Kinclaven, Perthshire, Scotland (d. 1845)
- May 15 Luigi Ferdinando Casamorata, Italian composer, music critic, attorney, and educator (Conservatory of Florence, 1862-81), born in Würzburg, Kingdom of Bavaria (now Germany) (d. 1881)
- May 24 Cornelis Eliza van Koetsveld, Dutch writer and preacher, born in Rotterdam, Netherlands (d. 1893)
- May 28 Jan van Swieten, Dutch general and governor of West-Sumatra, born in Mainz, Germany (d. 1888)
- May 28 Louis Agassiz, Swiss-American naturalist and geologist, born in Haut-Vully, Switzerland (d. 1873)
- Jun 2 Robert Führer, Czech composer of sacred music, and music theorist, born in Prague, Kingdom of Bohemia (d. 1861)
- Jun 6 Adrien-François Servais, Belgian composer, born in Halle, Belgium (d. 1866)
- Jun 11 James F. Schenck, American rear admiral (Mexican–American War), born in Franklin, Ohio (d. 1882)
- Jun 30 Friedrich Theodor Vischer, German philosopher and writer (Auch einer), born in Ludwigsburg, Germany (d. 1887)
- Jul 1 Thomas Green Clemson, American politician and founder of Clemson University, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1888)
Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882)
Jul 4 Italian general and nationalist (Risorgimento) who helped unify Italy, born in Nice, First French Empire
- Jul 12 Silas Casey, American Major General (Union Army), born in East Greenwich, Rhode Island (d. 1882)
- Jul 22 Karolina Pawlowa, Russian writer (A Double Life), born in Yaroslavl, Russian Empire (d. 1893)
- Jul 24 Ira Aldridge, famed 19th century African American Shakespearian actor (Othello), born in New York City (d. 1867) [1]
- Aug 8 Emilie Flygare-Carlén, Swedish novelist (d. 1892)
- Aug 11 David Rice Atchison, American politician (not President of the United States for a day on March 4, 1849), born in Lexington, Kentucky (d. 1886) [1]
- Aug 18 Charles Francis Adams Snr., American writer and diplomat, US Minister to the UK, son of President John Quincy Adams, born in Boston, Massachusetts (d. 1886)
- Sep 9 Richard Chenevix Trench, Irish Anglican clergyman and philologist, born in Dublin, Ireland (d. 1886)
- Sep 11 Ignaz Lachner, German composer, born in Rain, Kingdom of Bavaria (now Germany) (d. 1895)
- Sep 25 Alfred Vail, American inventor and early telegraph pioneer, born in Morristown, New Jersey (d. 1859)
- Sep 28 Arnold Henry Guyot, Swiss-American geologist, geographer and meteorologist, born in Boudevilliers, Switzerland (d. 1884)
- Oct 3 Heinrich Panofka, German violist and composer, born in Breslau, Germany (d. 1887)
- Oct 4 Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine, French Canadian politician (Prime Minister of the Province of Canada), born in Boucherville, Lower Canada (d. 1864)
- Oct 21 Miguel Hilarion Eslava, Spanish composer and priest (Chapel Master Royal Chapel Madrid), born in Burlada, Spain (d. 1878)
- Oct 21 Napoléon Henri Reber, French composer, born in Mulhouse, Alsace (d. 1880)
- Oct 22 Magnus Huss, Swedish physician who coined the word alcoholism and was the first to define it as a disease, born in Torps, Västernorrland county, Sweden (d. 1890)
- Oct 30 James Samuel Wadsworth, American Brevet Major General (Union Army), born in Geneseo, New York (d. 1864)
- Nov 16 François George-Hainl, French cellist and composer, born in Issoire, France (d. 1873)
- Dec 17 John Greenleaf Whittier, American Quaker poet (Snow-bound) and advocate for the abolition of slavery, born in Haverhill, Massachusetts (d. 1892)
- Dec 20 Richard Lucian Page, US Navy officer (Confederate Army), born in Clarke County, Virginia (d. 1901)
- Dec 22 Johann Sebastian Welhaven, Norwegian poet, born in Bergen, Norway (d. 1873)
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
80-89
Over 90