The most tragic thing about Ted is that he probably isn't at the end of his tether, that he could probably make a significant recovery if he just stayed home with his loved ones. He is obviously is suffering from jumpiness, nightmares, a normalised attitude to violence/increased aggression, but those in themselves are not as crippling as untreated PTSD can be, and these have a chance of diminishing or wearing off with a period of simple rest. He's probably past his prime as a soldier, anyway, so the Army really shouldn't need to send in on another tour. But, with the understanding of PTSD as it is, and the priority being to keep as many men of experience as possible, he will likely get back into war if he wants it. Best case, he gets back home, probably with even more severe and more irreparable trauma that he carries with him for life. Worst case, he becomes a liability on the battlefield and gets himself or his comrades killed. Let There Be Light is a film that shows an unflinching portrayal of just how crippling PTSD can be for veterans.
On the topic of PTSD, there is also the related condition of complex trauma disorder, or C-PTSD. From the condition's Wikipedia:
In contrast to PTSD, which results from seriously traumatic
events (like a battlefield), C-PTSD typically results from very long periods of sustained, inescapable trauma.
Like slavery.
Given the additional sympathy that white Unionists here have to black Americans, and the likelihood that a lot more soldiers are going to push themselves to breaking point in a more radical civil war, there is a chance, in my opinion, that doctors treating these two groups pay more serious attention to these conditions, and even notice the similarities.
Hopefully, it is at least recognised that what sufferers need is, first, an environment of safety, followed by opportunities to come to terms with their trauma, and to connect with loved ones, a community, and to society. A while ago we considered the possibility of a national gendarmerie, a new service branch with the mission of upholding law and order against crime and terrorism and to ensure Reconstruction is followed in the occupied South. Having this new service do this, rather than the Army, means it can be staffed from evaluated transfers from the Army and with green recruits, who are probably more psychologically fit for a long low-intensity war against white nationalist guerrillas than exhausted vets that are now too used to facing and dishing out volleys of lead. As much as we sympathise with the freeman ready to take the rifle off from the mantlepiece and die for his family should the Klan stage an attack, it's for the best of everyone if he and his family can just feel safe, and trust that the gendarmes will deal with any Neo-Confederate uprising, just as survivors of the Holocaust needed the protection of the Allied occupying armies to start repairing their lives. After a lifetime of slavery, the worst-affected can only heal if they are able to think about things other than survival.
It will be very difficult, and the odds are stacked against it, but the project of overcoming the traumas of both the civil war and of slavery could establish a positive relationship between the white Unionist and black communities of the South. As hinted at by Ted's distressing thoughts, he, like many veterans, may face difficulties in having his loved ones at home be able to understand what he went through; in fact, the two groups who he is most likely able to feel 'normal' around is other veterans and the formerly enslaved. It could be within the common goal of settling the peace after the civil war, and of beginning a civil society that can have a part in, where veterans and freed people can move on from shared trauma and come to see each other as equals. From the Wikipedia of Contact Theory, which I have mentioned earlier: