On the morning of July 14, the revolutionaries approached the Bastille. They demanded that the military leader of the Bastille, Governor de Launay, surrender the prison and hand over the gunpowder. He refused. As negotiations drug on, the crowd became agitated. In the early afternoon, they managed to get into the courtyard. Once inside the courtyard, they began to try and break into the main fortress. The soldiers in the Bastille became scared and fired into the crowd. The fighting had began. The turning point in the fight came when some of the soldiers joined the side of the crowd. De Launay soon realized that the situation was hopeless. He surrendered the fort and the revolutionaries took control.