What I noticed was that it was a full length book. I thought it was just a short story. I remember being sooooo mad at the ending.
One correlation - If I remember right, some union troops (damn yankees)tricked the main character, a southener, into attempting to burn a bridge or
some other type of sabotage so they could catch him red-handed
and have a reason to hang him.
This could be like Sawyer's con. He tricked John into moving the guns
so he could have them.
We have been told by TPTB that it isn't someone's dream, so that leaves
out that similarity.

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Have a cluckety cluck cluck day.