The Prince de Ponte-Corovo did not fail badly on his march to Dornburg and then later to Apolda, two indipendent testimonial - Dupont as well as Belliard
comfrim the difficult terrain.

Hans-Karl:
I can appreciate your conclusions here. But consider, Hohenlohe had traveled that same road days before and had made much better time. There is no question that his superiors thought his march was badly executed.

Also - initially the battle of Jena was designed to happen on two days, so for the 15th both Bernadotte as well as Davout would be in an excellent position
to take part and come into action.

That was the general plan, but did Bernadotte and Davout know this?

On the 14th then, Napoléon did beat the four different Prussian army bodys piecemeal, and then at 16:00 the issue was decided - and the battle had
shifted much more to the west than anticipiated and ended in one day. Indeed Bernadotte was placed superbly for the designated pursuite, and he cut
of the line of retreat from Prussian units from Auerstedt, which had to make detours - orientate themselves differently or to get captured.

That was Napoleon's original plan. If Bernadotte had been where he was supposed to be, it was have gone even better...

Bill