He had a brother Orville Funston, who would also serve in the Virginia General Assembly and as a Confederate officer.
Funston built a home about two miles southwest of White Post, Virginia.
In 1858 he took an extended trip to Europe, traveling across the Atlantic Ocean on a Cunard steamship, and did not return for the 1860 census other than its property schedules.
Funston's brother Orville Funston led a militia company that helped capture the U.S. arsenal at Harpers Ferry immediately after the Virginia Secession Convention of 1861 voted for secession on April 17, 1861.
He returned to Alexandria, and soon supervised evacuation of confederate troops from its train depot.