I wonder if there are documented early photos of actual Indian attacks on trains?
No. Nor are there any combat photos from other conflicts of that ere or sports action photos. It simply was not practical due to the exposure time, bulk and fragility of the glass plate negatives and cameras of the 1860s and 70s.
While I think I have read of
telegraph lines and poles (burned) being torn down, and can imagine trestles burned and track torn up, I don't
remember reading of actual attacks on trains.
The Lakota Sioux lead by Sitting Bull made numerous attacks on Northern Pacific survey and construction parties in Dakota Territory in the early 1870s. By 1873 the situation became so bad that the US Army sent an entire regiment under a distinguished civil war veteran commander into the area to protect the railroaders. The Regiment was the 7th Cavalry and their commander was George Armstrong Custer. The clashes between the forces of Sitting Bull and Custer between 1873 and 1876 are well documented.
Garry Owen!
