Those who died were quickly buried, often where they lay, because summer heat and high humidity created unbearable conditions. In 1868 contractors opened graves and removed bodies whose uniforms had US buttons, and these were reburied in Fort Gibson National Cemetery. Confederate dead were reburied where they were found in individual or mass unmarked graves, and their location is still unknown. Confederate accounts said the Federals buried about one hundred fifty Confederate dead and the same number of their own, released a prisoner with a letter to Cooper to come tend his wounded men, and kept surgeons with them until Cooper sent his. Another account recalled that Confederate dead were buried in a cornfield north of Elk Creek, while wounded men were taken by Federals to the McIntosh house and cared for by their surgeons until they were relieved under a flag of truce five or six days after the battle.