Complex sentence: Stribling received training as a doctor and completed medical degrees at the University of Virginia and University of Pennsylvania in 1854, and 1856, respectively, practicing medicine briefly before the outbreak of the Civil War.
Split into simpler sentences: Stribling received training as a doctor and completed medical degrees at the University of Virginia and University of Pennsylvania in 1854, and 1856, respectively. He practiced medicine briefly before the outbreak of the Civil War.