These concluding chapters move Deborah from the secrecy that has defined her military service toward the disclosure of her identity. McGovern structures the discovery in two stages. The first occurs privately when Dr. Binney examines Deborah during her illness and discovers that she’s a woman. He doesn’t reveal what he has learned and continues to present her to his family as Robert Shurtliff, preserving the secrecy that Deborah herself can no longer control while unconscious and seriously ill. The second stage occurs when his letter informs General Paterson of the truth. Deborah’s fear after delivering the letter extends The Burden of Concealment, which has repeatedly made the possibility of discovery a source of anxiety and danger. Paterson’s reaction finally removes much of that threat. He asks if the letter’s contents are true and, after Deborah confirms it, assures her that she has nothing to fear and expresses his “admiration and respect” (53). His respect for Deborah’s service remains unchanged after he learns the truth, making her record as a soldier especially significant. She has already performed the marches, raids, duties, and hardships expected of the other soldiers before Paterson discovers that she entered the army as a woman. Her excellent service record therefore preserves the biography’s distinction between the restrictions that initially excluded her from military service and the competence she displayed once given the opportunity to serve.

Clothing takes on a different meaning once Deborah no longer needs to hide that she’s a woman. After she confirms her identity to General Paterson, she asks him to find her the fanciest gown he can so that he can see her as Deborah Sampson. When she appears in a “pink gown trimmed with lace and ribbons” (54), she becomes unrecognizable to a captain who had seen “Robert Shurtliff” every day. Her appearance alone doesn’t convince him that she’s the same person; Deborah must name soldiers in his company and recount experiences they shared before he believes her. The scene brings the symbolism of men’s clothing to a revealing reversal. Throughout her service, male clothing helped Deborah pass as Robert Shurtliff; in the gown, the same soldier becomes unrecognizable even to someone accustomed to seeing her every day. McGovern uses this failure of recognition to emphasize how much the soldiers’ assumptions about Deborah have depended on her appearance. Years later, the old uniform appears in a very different context when she wears it during her public talks. The clothing that once helped her keep her military life secret can now be worn openly as she recounts that life to an audience. What began as part of her disguise thus becomes a public reminder of the service that she no longer has to conceal.

Deborah’s return to civilian life shows the persistence of The Lasting Drive for Adventure. Her marriage to Benjamin Gannet and her role as a mother give her a settled life in Sharon, yet McGovern emphasizes that Deborah remains restless and continues to wonder what lies “beyond the next hill” (57). Her wish to move west to Ohio extends the desire for travel that had earlier contributed to her decision to join the army. Benjamin prefers to remain on the farm he has worked hard to establish, and the family ultimately stays in Sharon. Deborah’s interest in what lies beyond Sharon therefore survives both her military experience and her return to civilian life, even though she doesn’t act on her wish to move west. Her injured leg, meanwhile, carries one consequence of her concealed military service into this later period. The wound that never healed properly continues to cause pain and prevents her from doing strenuous farm work. Years after Deborah no longer needs to protect her secret, the injury she sustained while doing so still limits her physically.

Years later, Deborah finally acts on her continuing desire to travel by taking her military story on a public lecture tour. At age 41, she begins traveling to cities including Boston, Providence, and New York to give talks for money. McGovern notes that she becomes one of the first women in the country to travel alone and give paid talks, while her arrangements for notices, tickets, and travel show her managing the practical demands of the tour herself. The diary motif also returns in this new period of her life. As a girl, Deborah used homemade writing materials to record and examine her thoughts and actions; during her travels, she records her audiences, expenses, and the money she sends home. The recurrence of the diary connects the private writing of her girlhood with the record she now keeps while traveling independently. It also captures her growing homesickness: “O dear, could I but once more see my dear children” (63). The tour gives Deborah the travel she has continued to seek, while her talks reveal how thoroughly her view of war has changed. While wearing the uniform associated with her own military adventures, she speaks openly against warfare and recalls the helplessness of watching wounded and dying soldiers. Adventure and war, once closely connected in her plans for a wider life, have become separate in her later understanding. Her desire to travel remains, while experience has taught her to condemn the violence she witnessed. As homesickness and exhaustion increase and her injured leg continues to hurt, Deborah ends the tour and returns to Sharon the following year.