Napoleon began to realise that
Davout's victory at Auerstadt was a greater one than
his own at Jena, and that the question was being asked
everywhere : " Why did the Emperor allow Marshal
Davout with such an inferior force to be engaged with
the main Prussian Army at Auerstadt ? " If he had
told the truth he would have admitted that he was
ignorant of the position of the main Prussian Army,
and that he had no idea that Davout would meet it.
He preferred to declare that he had foreseen and provided
for the event by ordering Bernadotte to march
with Davout and to support him, and that Bernadotte
for some technical reason of precedence or priority had
disobeyed his order, and had marched in another
direction to Camburg and Dornburg. If this version
of the incident had been the true one, it would have
completely exonerated Napoleon from the imputation
of want of forethought. It was believed to be the true
version and for more than a century misled the best historians.^
" When such mistakes arose," writes Lieutenant-
Colonel Titteux, of the French General Staff,
" Napoleon sought to conceal them by falsifying history
and blaming his generals. He refused to acknowledge
Davout's victory at Auerstadt as a separate battle . . .
and he announced that he had given orders to Bernadotte
to support Davout." ^
A week passed before any charge was made against

Now isn't it a sad joke what Napoleon wrote to Bernadotte

Jena, Marshal Augereau at Kahla, and Marshal Davout
at Naumburg. / let you hiow in the flight that if you
had not carried out that movement and if you were still
at Naumburg, you wer^ to march after Marshal Davout
and support him.

No-where - examining the original orders there is an order to support Davout - Bernadotte could have marched with Davout in case Bernadotte deemed to come to the reflection that by marching behind Davout he would be faster in Apolda than by marching via Dornburg.
There was never an order to support Davout - and for what should Bernadotte support Davout? Napoléon just wanted to make the world believe - even today - that he had already foreseen that Davout would run into a Prussian main force.
This is crumbling even to dust - in case of hypothetical thinking, in case Napoléon would have known that Davout would run against the Prussian main Army, than would he just allow Bernadotte and Davout to fight his on their own.
He would either order them to conduct a defensive operation or what have hastened with the Guard and Murat himself on the spot to wage the main battle under his control.