It seems the position of Captain of the Guard will spur a Dwarf on to incredible acts of heroism. I have had two in this fortress (my second!) and I have seen amazing things from both of them.
Firstly, a little background. I breached the first Cavern level and began mining out the gems, when I get a message about a forgotten beast. After checking it out, its a Gigantic Turtle with a poisonous bite thats swimming around in a lake far away from my dwarves. After watching it for a bit it never approached them, and I forget about it whilst managing my economy. Later I go to make something to eat and accidentally leave DF running for around 15 mins. I'm sure you can see where this is going.
So, I return to find 15 dead Dwarves and a Giant Turtle surrounded by body parts in my main corridor. I quickly scramble my militia to fight the thing, and my Captain is first on the scene. One of his arms is wounded from an earlier fight but he can still swing a steel battle axe. After a few good hits the turtle kicks him with its flipper and breaks his other arm. I'm thinking "uh-oh, new Captain needed" when he grabs the thing's head with his teeth and attempts to hold it! The thing then fails to break the grip and is held whilst 3 other dwarves surround it and hack it to bits with the captain still swinging from its head by his teeth.
That Captain unfortunately died after a nasty blood-borne poison that got splashed around my entrance rendered him unconscious just before a Kobold thief appeared and knifed him as he lay on the floor. Never did catch the sneaky little b@%$* either. So my new Captain is later sent to battle the latest Beast to appear, this time a huge Dragonfly that breathes poison. After chasing the thing down he hacks off a couple of legs with his axe, then proceeds to stare the thing in the eyes and punch it in the head so hard it's skull shatters, killing the thing instantly! Obviously axes are for pussies in the Dwarven Military.
Any ideas how I should reward this Chuck Norris-esque hero of dwarf kind?