“...both having had Negro ancestors who fought for the Confederacy and were nnot servants of officers.”
When I lived in Richmond, VA one of my neighbors was very active in the SOC.
One of his responsibilities was approving new applicants.
Each applicant had to produce proof that they were descendants of soldiers who died of wounds or disease while serving or who had been captured and held as a POW until the war ended.
He once told me that he had been amazed by the number of negroes who fought for the South. Not cooks, servants or wagon drivers but negroes wearing Confederate uniforms fighting side by side with white southerners.
Soon after that they started a drive to identify such men and find their descendants and offer them membership.
They were successful in signing some as new members and the descendants of those old veterans were happy and proud to join.
Many of them, maybe most, fought in the same units with the white soldiers. The Union army included Negroes in separate units.