The Moonshine Mule

In the summer of 1863, Colonel Arthur Fremantle travelled through America at the height of the country's violent Civil War. Almost 140 years later Tom Fremantle strode off in his swashbuckling ancestor's footsteps, to walk the 2700 miles from Mexico to Manhattan.In many ways, their journeys could not have been more different. Colonel Arthur rode on stagecoaches, steam trains and Mississippi river skiffs while his less sensible descendant slogged the entire way on foot. Colonel Arthur flirted with saucy belles; Tom Fremantle kept company with a cantankerous 17-year-old mule called Browny. The Colonel ate skunk meat and was arrested twice as a spy before witnessing the devastating Battle of Gettysburg and sailing home from New York. The 21st century Fremantle ate grits and was chased by a buffalo before leading the hapless Browny over George Washington Bridge and into Central Park.