A native of Bavaria, Bliemel came to the United States at the age of ninteen and entered the recently founded Abbey of St. Vincent. He was a pastor in Nashville when the Civil War broke out. Fatally shot while serving as chaplain to the Tenth Tennessee Regiment at the Battle of Jonesboro, he was the first Catholic chaplain in American history to be killed in battle.
Peter Meaney, OSB, "Valiant Chaplain of the Bloody Tenth"