Father William Cosby stated that “Catholic and non-Catholic, showed a profound respect, wishing at this fatal crisis to receive every benefit of divine grace that could be imparted.” He also added that “general absolution was intended for all, not only for our brigade, but for all, North or South, who were susceptible of it and who were about to appear before their Judge.
To focus on dying rather than on killing enabled the soldiers to mitigate their terrible responsibility for the slaughter of other men. The hors mori, the hour of death, had therefore to be witnessed, scrutinized, interpreted, narrated- not to mention carefully prepared for by any sinner who sought to be worthy of salvation. Family was central to the ars moriendi tradition, for kin performed its essential rituals. They thought one should die among family assembled around the deathbed. Relatives would be likely to show concern about the comfort and needs of their dying loved ones. However, more importantly family members needed to witness a death in order to assess the state of the dying person’s soul, for these critical last moments of life would epitomize his or her spiritual condition. Another thing that held a large prominence were last words, by the eighteenth century “dying declarations” had assumed explicit secular importance. People believed final words to be the truth, both because they thought the dying person could