He was killed while commanding a brigade at the Battle of Atlanta of July 22, 1864, one day before his commission as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army was delivered.

[1] In 1843, the Walker family moved to Hawkins County in east Tennessee, where his father was proprietor of a tavern.

[1] Walker was elected second lieutenant in the 5th Tennessee Infantry Regiment, commanded by his father as colonel, during the Mexican–American War.

[13][14] During a hard day of fighting after a night march to get into position, Hardee's men succeeded in bending back the Union left flank and retaking some breastworks that had been built by the Confederates earlier.

[18] Still part of the XVII Corps under Major General Francis Preston Blair Jr. still held a position anchored on Bald Hill.

[19] Confederate Major General Patrick Cleburne, operating under Hardee, gathered available forces in the area to make a large assault against the Union position on Bald Hill.

[20] Blair meanwhile had thought the Confederate effort had been spent and even suggested in a message to Union Army commander Major General William T. Sherman that with another brigade he could retake the lost ground.

[20] Francis M. Walker's men, which included his 19th Tennessee Infantry as well as Maney's old brigade, had not been engaged that day since they had been marched and countermarched almost back to their original position.

[22] Emerging from a stand of woods, Walker's men were hard hit and began to retreat before Cleburne and Maney rallied them.

[25][26] After Walker's death, many of his men diverted to another point of attack to try to take a Union battery and suffered severe casualties.

[27] As night fell, the Confederates could not continue the attack and the Union troops held their fort at the top of the hill.