"his superiors"? Why do you use the plural form of "superior"? NB was Bernadotte's only "superior", and his assessment of his subordinates' behavior was designed purely to make himself look good - observe his minimizing of Davout's role.

"traveled that same road before and made much better time"? With how many troops, in what weather, after covering how many miles in the previous days .... ?

"original plan"? NB got into a scrape with a fraction of the Prussian army at Jena & thought he was engaging their main force, while Davout blundered unwittingly into the main Prussian army and saved NB's bacon by putting up a stout resistance until FW3's nerve cracked & he ordered a withdrawal. The "original plan" was relegated to the bumf file.

Frank:
Sorry about the confusion. By 'superiors' I meant anyone in a supervisory position who felt they had the right or responsibility to chide him officially for his failures. Berthier was one who did. Murat was another, as he was the one whom Bernadotte was supposed to support. On the list of marshals, Murat and Berthier were higher on the list and did outrank him. And Napoleon and his whole marshalet was built on 'making themselves look good', seeking glory and fame. Perception counted as much as reality. It's like sex appeal: 50% is what you have and 50% is what others think you have. However, you don't have an army as fine as Napoleon's with "assessments of his subordinates' behavior designed purely to make himself look good."

I would imagine that Hohenloe with about 40,000 Prussians and Saxons weren't in any better shape than Bernadotte's 25,000. [in round numbers] Traveling in the dark isn't easy, but the I Corps made less than a mile an hour for eight hours, most of that in daylight.

The original plan was for Bernadotte and Davout to be on the flank and behind the main Prussian army around Jena to cut off any retreat etc. So, on the 15th,, Bernadotte was in a good position to carry out the pursuit and cut the Prussian line of retreat, which was the idea behind Napoleon's original plan, regardless of how things actually turned out.

Bill