[2] He was later appointed an enrollment officer for the city of Racine, soliciting volunteers for service in the Union Army.

[2] Towards the end of the war, he received a federal commission as a captain in the commissary and subsistence division and assigned to the Department of the Gulf.

While living there, he was an organizer and delegate to Wisconsin's 1868 "Soldiers' and Sailors' Convention", to select delegates to a national convention, to repudiate efforts to end Reconstruction and restore the political power of former Confederate sympathizers.

[5] He was a partner in the corporation which was formed to purchase and overhaul the Milwaukee Sentinel in 1870, under Alexander McDonald Thomson.

His grandfather, Jonathan Upham, was a soldier in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War and was present at the surrender of Yorktown.

[9] Calvin had several siblings, most notable was William H. Upham, who also emigrated to Wisconsin and served in the Union Army.