Russell F. Weigley, 73; Scholar Wrote Books on Military History

Russell F. Weigley, 73, a professor, scholar and author on military history, died of a heart attack March 3 in Philadelphia.

Weigley’s several nonfiction books detailed the military history of wars, weapons and strategies. His 2000 work, “A Great Civil War: A Military and Political History, 1861-1865,” won the Lincoln Prize from the Lincoln and Soldiers Institute at Gettysburg College. His 1981 history of American involvement in World War II, “Eisenhower’s Lieutenants: The Campaign of France and Germany, 1944-1945,” was a finalist for the American Book Award.

Among his other books were “Quartermaster General of the Union Army” in 1959, “History of the United States Army” in 1967 and “The Draft and Its Enemies” in 1974. His 1991 “The Age of Battles” won the outstanding book award for non-American history from the Society for Military History. Weigley also edited books, including “Philadelphia” in 1982, and was a reviewer for The Times and other papers.

Born in Reading, Pa., and educated at Albright College and the University of Pennsylvania, Weigley taught at Penn, the Drexel Institute of Technology, and from 1962 until 1999 at Temple University.