While serving as Chaplain of the 10th Tennessee Regiment, he ministered to the spiritual needs of wounded soldiers, under fire as well as behind the lines.

He emigrated to the United States in 1850, hoping to be a missionary to German Catholics in Pennsylvania, where he already had several cousins.

Bliemel officially enlisted as a chaplain on 20 February 1864 at the age of 32 in Company S, 10th Tennessee Infantry Regiment.

Initially he was buried by Mary Anne "Mollie" Holliday in her family plot near the scene of the battle, on the present day site of the Historic Clayton County Courthouse.

Bliemel’s remains were later moved twice, first to the Patrick R. Cleburne Confederate Cemetery in Jonesboro, and in 1899 to a Benedictine parish in Tuscumbia, Alabama.