Caldwell attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, graduating on June 4, 1840.

[2] In 1842 he was elected a member of the North Carolina House of Commons in which he served two sessions.

After the close of the Civil War he was a member of the Reconstruction Convention, and President of Western North Carolina Railroad.

[3] Caldwell was elected the first lieutenant governor of North Carolina in 1868, the same year the state constitution had created the office.

He appointed Alexander McIver as Superintendent of Public Instruction and got a bill passed allowing private aid for public schools in order to gain funds to reopen the schools.