Is there a way to see a textual description of fights?

I've seen some pretty descriptive descriptions of fights in Dwarf Fortress.

I always assumed they were from Adventure mode. Is there a way to see a textual description of combats in Fortress mode?

Of course there is!

Just press r in the main menu to view the combat / hunting / sparring reports. You'll see a list of report topics, each of which generally describes one side of a fight. So, for example, if your hunter has cornered a groundhog, you'll see two reports of it, something like:

• the Hunter Lokum Rosatkeskal is hunting!
• the Groundhog is fighting!

Select any of the reports and press enter to view all the gory (and I do mean gory) details of the fight.

Pressing r will bring up Combat R eports, which has the blow-by-blow information you're looking for.

s will bring up S parring reports, which are a less violent version of the former.