Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne Laurence Sterne (24 November 1713 – 18 March 1768) was an Irish-born English language novelist and an Anglican clergyman. He wrote the novels "The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman" and "A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy", and also published many sermons, wrote memoirs, and was involved in local politics. Sterne died in London after years of fighting tuberculosis. Sterne was born in Clonmel, County Tipperary. His father, Roger Sterne, was an ensign in a British regiment recently returned from Dunkirk, which was disbanded on the day of Sterne's birth. Within six months the family had
USS Tristram Shandy (1864) of the devastated fallen Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia. Two days later, the ship moored at Baltimore, Maryland, where the admiral was greeted with the sad news that the President had been assassinated the previous night in Washington. On 26 April, the ship returned to Hampton Roads to continue her duties as a dispatch vessel, operating off the Virginia Capes, concurrently serving as a lookout and keeping watch for the Confederate ram , believed to be still at sea and unaware that hostilities had ceased. "Tristram Shandy" then conveyed Confederate prisoners of war to Fort Pulaski, Georgia, in late May