My great-grandmother's eldest brother was in the Army during the late 1800's. He gave her a bunch of wool blankets that were stamped as the U.S. Calvary. She used most of them as batting. They were washed. Probably not a lot, because they didn't was items as often then as they do now, but they were laundered at least once a year. They were tied. Neither my great-grandmother or my grandmother were sentimental, my grandmother did not sew so when the quilts appeared to be worn-out I am sure she got rid of them. We used them when I was a little girl when my GGM was still alive but no idea what happened to them, just assuming they were either thrown out or given away when the two homes were combined into one.